


The Key to My Heart

by whisperinthemoonlight



Category: South Park
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Alternate Universe - High School, Denial of Feelings, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Friendship/Love, Getting Back Together, Love Confessions, M/M, Mutual Pining, Reconciliation, Romantic Fluff, Slow Burn, Teen Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-02
Updated: 2020-10-25
Packaged: 2021-03-04 23:48:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 48,408
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25024924
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whisperinthemoonlight/pseuds/whisperinthemoonlight
Summary: After nearly a couple of years of being apart, Stan and Wendy slowly find their way back to one another. [Stendy slow burn, fluff.]
Relationships: Craig Tucker/Tweek Tweak, Kenny McCormick/Red, Kyle Broflovski/Bebe Stevens, Leopold "Butters" Stotch & Heidi Turner, Minor or Background Relationship(s), Stan Marsh/Wendy Testaburger, Token Black/Nichole Daniels
Comments: 13
Kudos: 42





	1. [love is when?]

_Stan and Wendy had been dating ever since the start of third grade, when they finally confessed their feelings for each other. Although they experienced a few minor tiffs and three breakups along the way, their relationship had been going relatively smoothly._

_However, with them reaching the end of elementary school and developing different interests along the way, they slowly began spending less and less time together._

_Whenever Wendy tried to hang out with Stan, he was either busy with his soccer practices or would spend time with his friends. And it was vice versa for the dark haired boy – Wendy's schedule was busier than ever and she didn't have too much time to hang out with her boyfriend._

_And it wasn't until another fight between Stan and Wendy that ultimately led to them breaking up for the fourth, and presumably, final time. They both decided to break things off for good, but still wanted to remain on normal, civil terms._

_''Friends?'', the dark haired boy extended his hand out to Wendy, offering her a reassuring smile._

_''That goddamned, gorgeous smile of his.'', Wendy thought to herself, gazing into his sharp blue eyes._

_Trying her damnedest to conceal the hurt and sadness forming in her deep brown eyes, Wendy forced the smallest smirk imaginable and shook hands with Stan. ''Sure, we can be friends.''_

_Smiling affectionately at her, the raven haired teenage boy patted her on the shoulder before he turned around on the spot and began walking towards their eighth grade classroom. ''I'll see you around Wends.''_

_Walking up to her locker, Wendy flicked away a tiny, solitary tear that ran down her cheek. Forcing down a sob, she threw her books inside the locker and slammed it shut. Turning around on the spot, she allowed herself to look one more time at the only boy she had loved ever since the third grade. She let out a sad sigh, resting her head against her locker and finally allowing more fresh tears to roll down her cheeks._

_Because some things are just meant to end, no matter how much you try to fix them._

**_Right?_ **

* * *

_Click, clack._

_Click, clack, click, clack._

_Click, clack._

Every single tick-tock sound emitting from the small, pink digital clock slowly began to create gaps in Wendy Testaburger's sweet slumber.

She was comfortably wrapped up in her covers, snoozing and snoring peacefully. But of course, all of her pleasant dreams were soon dissipated as her alarm clock hit six-thirty AM sharp. Her chocolate brown eyes slowly fluttered open, as she rolled over to the other side of her queen-sized bed and smacked the alarm shut with her left hand.

Rubbing her eyes, the fifteen year-old girl let out a yawn and stretched herself out as much as she possibly could. She removed the covers off her body and swung her legs over the edge of the bed, letting out another big yawn. She got up and waltzed her way around the bed, grabbing her bathrobe and other necessary things before going to the bathroom to get herself ready for the start of new day, and _more_ importantly, for the start of her Sophomore year in high school.

After she was done getting ready for the day, Wendy examined herself in the mirror and smiled, feeling satisfied with the way she looked. She chose to wear something comfortable, but cute as well – a simple white polo t-shirt, high-waisted ripped blue skinny jeans and a pair of red Vans sneakers.

Puberty had mostly done wonders for Wendy. Apart from her body developing, she had also gotten taller and was standing just a little bit above five foot five inches. Playing volleyball and being on the volleyball squad throughout the elementary school and the Freshman year of high school had helped her to maintain her body in a good, fit shape. Her raven black hair was longer than ever, going all the way down to the small of her back.

Wendy grabbed her schoolbag and sauntered her way downstairs towards the kitchen. Putting her schoolbag on the dining table, the raven haired girl walked her way around the corner into the kitchen and spotted her mother, Mrs. Testaburger, rinsing off her coffee mug in the sink.

''Mornin' mom.'', Wendy said, trying to conceal the sleepiness in her voice.

Her mother instantly turned around, smiling sweetly at her only child. ''Good morning hon. Ready for the new school year?''

''Uh, yeah.'', Wendy replied back, swallowing down a yawn. ''I guess I am.''

The teenage girl walked over to one of the kitchen cupboards and grabbed a box of cereal, as well as milk from the fridge. She pulled out a bar stool that was placed underneath the centre island of the kitchen and sat on it, crossing her legs. She made herself breakfast and slowly began eating it, still not feeling quite as awake as she was supposed to.

''You didn't get enough of sleep, did you?'', Mrs. Testaburger asked.

''Yeah, not really.'', Wendy confirmed, trying to resist the urge to rub her eyes again. ''I was talking to Bebe on the phone up until one-thirty AM or something. I haven't seen her ever since she went on a family vacation to California, so we were mostly catching up.''

A teasing smile popped in the corners of the older raven haired woman's lips. ''Bebe, huh? Or were you maybe talking to _some_ boy, hm?''

Wriggling her nose in sheer annoyance, Wendy emitted a slight groan. She rolled her eyes at her mom, before she continued to eat her breakfast. ''Mom, c'mon. _Don't_ be silly.''

''I'm just kidding hon.''

''I know, but I really don't wanna' talk about it, ugh.'', Wendy said as she got up from the stool and put the dirty dishes in the sink. ''Hey, where's dad? Did he have to go to work a little bit earlier today or what?''

''Yeah, unfortunately he had to. But, he will probably come home earlier than he usually does.'', Mrs. Testaburger explained. ''If you want to, I can drop you and Bebe off to school today. I have a day off from work, so I can use that as an opportunity to get out of the house.''

''No mom, you don't have to. We're going to meet up at the bus stop instead.'', Wendy replied with a chuckle. ''Knowing Bebe, something tells me I'll probably have to wait for her a little bit longer than usual.''

''Oh, okay then sweetie.''

After saying goodbye to her mother, Wendy snatched her schoolbag from the dining table and her black leather jacket from the coat hanger. Hastily putting on her leather jacket and swinging her backpack over the shoulder, Wendy grabbed the spare house keys from a small table next to the front door and made a direct beeline for the bus stop, eager to see her best friend after long three weeks.

* * *

After walking for five minutes or so, the raven haired girl felt her smile forming wide as she spotted her best friend sitting at the bus stop. That only brought Wendy an extra pep in her step, as she began walking faster towards the bus stop and called out for her best friend.

''Bebe!''

''Hey girl!'', the curly blonde glanced away from her phone and beamed at Wendy, whisking away a loose blonde ringlet out of her face and getting up to collect her best friend into a tight hug.

''I missed you so much!'', Wendy cried out, hugging the slightly taller blonde.

''I missed you too!'', Bebe hugged her best friend back just as snugly.

After spending the first part of summer break with her boyfriend and closest girl friends, Bebe went on a three week vacation to visit her mother's side of the family in Santa Monica, California. The gorgeous blonde spent some well-deserved time with her favorite cousins, learned how to surf for the first time and allowed herself to simply relax for a few weeks before returning back to Colorado for the start of new school year.

''Damn, the Santa Monica sun surely did wonders for you! You're like, _really_ tanned.'', Wendy said, pulling away from Bebe and eyeing her from head to toe.

The curly blonde was wearing a white and black striped blouse, black skinny jeans and a pair of white sneakers. A red leather jacket was draped around her shoulders and she held her handbag in her right hand.

''Hehe, thanks girl. You don't look _too_ bad yourself.'', Bebe said, noticing that her best friend was in a slightly more fit shape since they had last seen each other.

''Oh really? Thanks, I've been working out a bit.'', Wendy responded back.

"I can tell! You're looking good."

"Well, there's only _so_ much volunteer work you can do over the summer. I was just bored one day and started working out, that's all.", the teenage girl stated, smiling sweetly at her oldest friend.

The two long time best friends spent a few more minutes catching up on everything they had missed out on over the three weeks Bebe spent in California with her family. The school bus soon appeared and the two girls climbed on, eventually sitting down in their usual spot – the backseat of the bus.

''I honestly can't wait to see Kyle. I've missed him _so_ fucking much when I was in California.", Bebe said, letting out a faint sigh.

Wendy snorted teasingly, folding her arms across her chest. "Didn't you guys facetime each other like _every_ , single day?''

"Well yeah, but trust me – no facetiming or instant messaging beats seeing your boyfriend in person.", Bebe explained, running her manicured fingertips through her frizzy blonde curls.

Pressing her back against the bus seat and listening to her best friend's ramblings, the raven haired girl briefly forgot that on the next bus stop, the everlasting foursome consisting of Kyle Broflovski, Stan Marsh, Kenny McCormick and Eric Cartman would climb on. ''Yeah, I can only imagine it.''

"Oh that reminds me – Kyle told me that he's taking the bus to school today, along with the guys."

Allowing that thought to carelessly drift across her mind, Wendy was suddenly snapped out of her daydream as she saw four best friends climbing onboard and sitting down relatively close to her and Bebe.

Of course, Kyle and Bebe instantly threw their hands around one another, kissing and snuggling up to each other, but also not caring _too_ much about their P.D.A. causing the other three teenage boys to groan out annoyingly. Wendy didn't really budge for the rest of the bus ride to school, but she did allow herself to glance over to a particular boy in the red poof ball hat.

And damn, did he _still_ look handsome to Wendy.

As expected, Stan had gotten taller over his Freshman year in high school, standing at almost six foot zero inches. Not to mention that he had gotten more buffed as well, since he started playing as a quarterback again and had been enjoying every single moment of it. His raven black hair was slightly longer than before, with a few longer strands poking through his trusty red poof ball hat.

But one thing that hadn't changed about Stan at all was his teasing and cheeky personality.

Kenny and Stan were laughing their ears off, presumably poking fun at Cartman and the fact that he had still been a fat tub of lard, though slightly less fatter than the one he used to be in elementary school. The pudgy brunette teenager didn't miss out on an opportunity to poke fun at Kenny and his low family income, and of course, he made about fifteen Jew jokes by the time they had arrived at the parking lot of South Park High School, earning himself a couple of slaps from Kyle's feisty blonde girlfriend.

''Another school year, another nine months I'll have to deal with that fat tub of lard.'', the raven haired beauty muttered to herself, getting up from her bus seat. Wendy swung her backpack over her shoulders and accidentally brushed past her ex-boyfriend, gaining his attention. That made her heart skip a shy beat, but she did allow herself to smirk at Stan.

And of course, the raven haired teenage boy could only smirk back at her.

Climbing off the bus, Wendy immediately made a beeline for the double door of the school. Once she marched over to her locker, she took her backpack off her shoulders and began she placing her new school books and textbooks inside the locker. She pulled her blue binder out of her backpack and began flicking through it, trying to find her schedule for the new school year.

''Wendy!'', the ravenette turned around on the spot upon hearing a familiar female voice call her name out. She smiled as she saw Bebe and Heidi approaching her and holding their textbooks in their arms.

''Hey girls!'', Wendy chirped happily, pulling Heidi into a gentle hug.

''Hey Wends, we were looking for you.'', the brunette teenage girl said, adjusting her handbag over her shoulder as she pulled away from one of her best friends. ''Aren't you coming to Math class with us?''

Wendy instantly raised an eyebrow in confusion and looked down at her binder. ''Huh? Wait what?''

''Don't you have Maths with us this year?'', Bebe replied back, chuckling in slight confusion.

''Well, I just saw that I have Maths in the classroom two hundred and four. Do we all have it together this year or what?''

''Yeah! That's good, because we can catch up on everything with the girls and also get good seats close to each other.'', Heidi confirmed. ''Come on, we should _really_ get going. We don't want to be late for our first math class in the Sophomore year.''

''Ugh, I hate Maths so fucking much. Can someone explain to me _why_ it has to be our very first period on Mondays?'', Bebe commented cynically, hanging her head back with a slight groan and following her two friends towards their first class of the Sophomore year.

* * *

It had seemed to Wendy as if someone purposely put together all of her former elementary school classmates in nearly all of her classes, except for the Advanced Placement Chemistry class. And unsurprisingly to the raven haired girl, the rest of her classes seemed to drag on endlessly up until the bell rang for the start of lunch break.

Wendy and Bebe walked to their respective lockers, before the blonde teenager stuffed all of her books inside the locker and zipped across the hall over to her best friend.

''Oh come on Wends, I promised Kyle I would meet up with him before the lunch break starts.'', Bebe droned, leaning herself against the cool metal surface of the lockers.

''I don't get it, _why_ should I come with you?'', Wendy scoffed slightly, turning towards her best friend and cocking a rather unimpressed eyebrow at her.

''Well, he said he wanted to talk to you about the student body council and that shit.'', Bebe explained briefly.

''Oh yeah, he's perhaps going to run for the student body president again. And I'm hoping that he doesn't win this year.'', Wendy smirked cheekily.

''Look Wends, you're my best friend and everything, but I think I'm gonna' vote for Kyle this year. Or maybe both of you will have to battle for my vote.'', Bebe stuck her tongue out, laughing at her best friend. ''Also, I've heard that Red is apparently throwing a party this weekend!''

And just the sole mention of the word 'party' made Wendy roll her eyes.

Although Freshman year was very successful for Wendy in terms of her academic life, her social life hadn't been exactly on par with that. Even though she was active in the student body council as its vice-president and was the captain of the school's volleyball team, Wendy rarely went to parties with her girl friends, especially knowing there was a high probability of bumping into Stan and whatever arm-candy he had invited to come with him.

And besides, she had never been a party person to begin with. She would've always stayed home and curled up with a good book, rather than go to the parties with her friends.

''Ugh Bebe, you know how I feel about parties.'', she droned, shutting her own locker and making a beeline for the school cafeteria.

''Come on Wends, you _can't_ be like this forever. One party isn't gonna' kill you, and besides, you might meet someone cute there."

Wendy rolled her eyes in slight disgust and groaned out. "Ugh, after I wasted six months on dating that asshole Lucas, I'm perfectly fine being single.''

Shrugging her shoulders in response, Bebe rolled her eyes at her best friend's attitude towards the opposite sex, but decided to cheer her up instead and not argue over something so trivial. However, the raven haired beauty seemed to be less than thrilled once they reached the big double door of the school cafeteria.

"Do we _really_ need to sit with Kyle and the guys?"

"It's not that bad, trust me. Well, Cartman's still a piece of shit, but Stan and Kenny are pretty okay."

While Kenny's perverted nature would often clash with Wendy's feminist attitude on so many different things, they were actually on pretty okay terms, since she would occasionally give advice to the middle McCormick whenever he had troubles with the neglectful antics of his parents or needed someone to explain him the Algebra he hated with every single cell of his body.

But of course, there hadn't been any positive developments when it came to Wendy's dealings with Eric Cartman. She would usually just ignore the brunette tub of lard whenever he tried to provoke her, because frankly, the raven haired beauty had much better things to do than to waste her time on his lame attempts at trying to piss her off.

Wendy glanced over at the table where the inseparable quartet of teenage boys was sitting. She huffed out nervously, feeling her heart race in her chest as she laid her eyes on one particular person sitting in between Kenny and Kyle.

Wendy and Stan hadn't exactly been on speaking terms with each other for much of the eighth grade and their Freshman year.

However, as their respective best friends began dating, the two raven haired teenagers were sort of forced to talk to each other again. Small talk was the most they would do when it came to their interactions, but it wasn't until Stan suddenly began to completely avoid Wendy. And she couldn't exactly wrap her head around why he had started ignoring her, but it wasn't like she was completely taken aback by it.

But several months later, it had seemed pretty weird to their friends that she and Stan were back on civil terms out of a sudden. And it definitely didn't have anything to do with her dumping her ex-boyfriend Lucas. Right?

Grabbing her lunch tray, Wendy was dragging herself behind her best friend, who happily skipped over to her boyfriend's lunch table and joined his group of friends. The dark haired teenage girl waltzed around the table and took a seat on the bench next to Bebe.

But of course, the short lasting moment of quietness was disrupted when Cartman let out a loud groan and glared absolute daggers at his long-time female rival.

"Ay! Who the hell invited you here? This isn't a table for hippies like _you_!"

Choosing to ignore Cartman's thunderous and obnoxious rambling, Wendy tried to eat her lunch peacefully and didn't allow the overweight sixteen year-old to interrupt her very first lunch of the Sophomore year.

"In case you _really_ wanna' know, Kyle and Bebe invited me.'', Wendy explained politely.

"Yeah, I don't see the big deal with Wendy eating lunch at our table. But of course, it's _you_ who always has to complain about something.", Kyle replied back to his frenemy, inconspicuously fishing down for Bebe's hand and linking their fingers together.

And of course, it didn't take Cartman too long to snipe back at the redhead sitting at the opposite end of their lunch table and fire his usual arsenal of anti-semitic insults. "Shut your fucking mouth, you dirty Jew!"

But a third voice suddenly made the dark haired teenage girl snap her head up and allow a small smirk to creep across her face.

"Can _both_ of you just shut the hell up and let us eat in peace? I don't mind either Bebe or Wendy at our lunch table. If anything, at least the lunch will be a little bit more fun than usual.", Stan shook his head in disbelief and focused back on eating his lunch.

''This is going to be one long school year.'', Wendy thought to herself quietly.

* * *

The rest of the day seemed to zoom by in a blink of an eye.

Wendy spent her recess catching up on everything with her closest girl friends, which definitely made her first day of school much more fun and helped her momentarily forget about all the extracurricular activities she had chosen to take in her Sophomore year.

After coming home from school, Wendy spent the rest of the day going over her school schedule and some Advanced Placement Chemistry exercises she was already given as an assignment to do. She later facetimed Bebe and played some Mario Kart up until the dinner time.

And even after her mother made dinner, Wendy was mostly picking at her food, still not feeling hungry after what had felt like a busy first day of school for the teenage girl.

''So sweetie, how was your first day of school?'', Mr. Testaburger asked, gaining the attention of his only child.

"Oh well, it was good for the first day.'' Wendy admitted, taking a sip from her can of Pepsi. ''But I will be busier than ever, that's for sure.''

"Really? How come?"

''Well, I'm thinking about joining the cheer squad. Bebe's been convincing me to join ever since the Freshman year, but I never went to the cheer tryouts.", the teenage girl explained.

''That's awesome sweetie, but don't you think all of those extracurricular activities will be a little bit _too_ much for you?'', Mrs. Testaburger chimed in, giving her daughter a worrysome look.

''I don't think it actually will.'', Wendy responded. ''I'm still the vice-president of the student body council, but I _only_ have to show up when it's something important on the agenda. Volleyball practice will be two times a week and cheerleading will probably be once or twice a week. I think I can pull it all off, and of course, the extracurricular activities can only give me more credits."

"Alright then sweetie, but your mom and I are just worried about you getting burned out from all the pressure you're potentially going to put on yourself.", Mr. Testaburger replied.

"Well look, it hasn't caused me problems so far and I still don't think it will. Don't worry about it dad.'', Wendy smiled, trying to reassure her father. "Speaking of my classes, I'm in the majority of classes with almost all of my elementary school classmates. I only have AP Chemistry with Heidi, Token and Esther though."

"Oh sweetie, that's good.", the older raven haired woman said.

"Well, I did go to the same elementary school with all of my classmates, but it's not like I ever paid too much attention to some of them. I'm just glad that my closest friends are at least in half of my classes."

"What about that boy you used to be crazy about? Stan Marsh, right?"

"Well he _is_ , but it's not like I pay _too_ much attention to him either. We broke up nearly year and a half ago, but we are still on okay terms.'', Wendy explained briefly, not exactly being in the mood to talk about her ex-boyfriend.

After she was done eating her dinner and doing the dishes, the teenage girl took a shower and decided to binge-watch one of her favorite Netflix shows, _Never Have I Ever._

However, Wendy fell asleep somewhere during the last three episodes of the show and woke up a couple of hours later. She flinched as the light from her phone screen hit her eyeballs, but she unlocked it and saw that it was a little bit past twelve-thirty AM.

But what instantly caught her attention was the message she had received not even fifteen minutes before that.

And her mouth went agape as she realized from whom _exactly_ the message was.

_'You up?'_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello dear readers!
> 
> So, I finally decided to take the plunge and start writing my very first multi-chaptered Stendy story. I've had this idea in my head for quite a while, but I just never got an inspiration to start working on it.
> 
> Just like all the stories I've written so far about my favorite South Park couple, this story will be very fluffy and sort of a slow burn between Stan and Wendy.
> 
> I don't know how many chapters I will write, but I definitely won't do more than ten chapters. I have planned out about fifty percent of the story already, but it's very possible I will do some changes along the way.
> 
> As for the updates, I will try to update it at least every other week or maybe even sooner. :)
> 
> \- xoxo, whisperinthemoonlight. ❤


	2. [crossing paths]

_'You up?'_

Wendy couldn't believe her eyes as she re-read the message a couple of times, just to make sure that she hadn't been hallucinating.

Flopping down on her fluffy purple pillows, she groaned out and ran one hand down the side of her face. She raised her iPhone above her head, rubbing her weary eyes once again.

_What the hell am I supposed to do?_

While her and Stan might've been on speaking terms again, that didn't necessarily include the aspect of communicating via text messages or through Instagram. After their breakup, Wendy deleted every single one of Stan's messages from her phone with quite the haste, but for some weird reason, she actually forgot to delete his phone number and just left it in the depths of her contacts' list.

And now, Wendy was mulling over two different choices – either to ignore Stan's text message or to respond back.

Chewing down on her bottom lip, the dark haired teenage girl stewed in thought. She let out a faint groan and glanced down at her phone, before finally deciding to go ahead with the most obvious option.

Since she and Stan had at least been on speaking terms for the past few months, Wendy just couldn't force herself _not_ to be nice towards him.

She opened her messaging app and typed out a quick response to her ex-boyfriend.

_'Yeah, just woke up though..I fell asleep while watching Netflix.'_

Her phone buzzed not even twenty seconds later. Reading her ex-boyfriend's text message, Wendy smiled softly to herself.

_'Well, you at least did get some sleep. My dad came home drunk as fuck and began acting like a total retard again.'_

_'Your dad doing stupid shit while being drunk? Tell me something I don't know.'_

_'Well here's something you probably don't know: guess who's gonna one of the only Sophomores playing on the starting team? ;)'_

Smirking to herself, the raven haired beauty could feel her heart skipping a small beat. She wasn't sure why, but it felt good knowing that Stan's efforts and dedication towards playing football had _finally_ paid off, thus earning him the starting position on school's football team.

_'You, of course. I know that, dumbie. :)'_

_'I guess then both of us are dumbies cause we are supposed to be asleep, but okay.'_

''Goddamit. Is he trying to flirt with me?'', Wendy muttered to herself, rolling her chocolate brown eyes. Deciding not to get trapped within Stan's irresistible charm, she switched the topic of their conversation.

_'So, what were you up to during the summer?'_

_'Nothing too special...mostly helping dad with his hemp business, played a little bit of football and soccer. The usual shit. You?'_

_'Volunteer work at a local women's shelter, family vacation in Florida and I visited the Grand Canyon for the first time!'_

_'Nice. Seems like you had a pretty productive summer.'_

_'Well yeah, I wasn't gonna sit on my ass for the whole two months. But you also had a pretty good summer, so don't complain about it!'_

_'It would've been better if I hadn't been forced to help out my dad with his fucking hemp business, but honestly, I can't complain that much. Playing football made up for much of the lost fun time.'_

_'Are you going to Red's party on Friday?'_

The blatancy in Stan's second text message left Wendy slightly taken aback by it. It had felt sort of weird to her that her ex-boyfriend asked her if she would be going to her friend's party. But then again, there was nothing else in his question other than common courtesy.

And of course, Red invited almost everyone from their tight-knit group of classmates to her party, including Stan and his other three inseparable best friends.

_'I probably will, since it's only the beginning of school year and I'm not that busy.'_

Finally feeling her eyelids getting heavier, Wendy decided not to indulge herself further into the conversation with her ex-boyfriend. She rolled over onto the left side of her bed and grabbed her charger from the bedside table, placing her phone down to charge it and rolling back onto the side of the bed where she had been laying before. She pulled the covers all the way up to her chin and comfortably snuggled underneath them, hoping to drift off into the deep slumber soon.

But out of a sudden, a _very_ peculiar sensation swept over Wendy's mind.

The raven haired girl turned over to her nightstand and reached forward to grab her mobile phone. Chewing down on her bottom lip curiously, she unlocked her phone and flicked briefly through the app list until she reached the photo album. She clicked into it and began scrolling down a little bit, before one particular picture caught her eye and made her heart skip a beat, or two.

It was a picture of Wendy sitting on top of Stan's shoulders, proudly displaying the trophy that the South Park Cows girls' volleyball team won after smashing through their annual volleyball cup in the eighth grade. Proud smiles were plastered across both raven haired teenagers' faces, but none of them was bigger than the one Wendy was sporting.

The picture was nearly two years old, but it had never failed to make Wendy's heart pitter patter with pure glee.

Glancing away from her mobile phone, Wendy let out a faint sigh and closed her eyes. Fluttering them open again, she stared at the ceiling of her bedroom for a few moments, before running a hand down the side of her face and letting out a soft groan.

There had been just so many confusing thoughts and musings building up inside of the raven haired girl's mind. And she couldn't _exactly_ wrap her head around why.

But in the end, all of her thoughts could've been easily summed up in one sentence.

_Why was she suddenly thinking about Stan again?_

* * *

It was Tuesday now, marking the beginning of the second day of a new school year.

But to the fifteen year-old Stan Marsh it hadn't made _any_ difference whether it was Monday, Tuesday or any other work day of the week.

He was just glad that he didn't have to wake up at six AM every day in order to help his father with his stupid weed business, just like he had done over the summer break.

After spending an awful lot of time helping his father Randy with his still ongoing hemp business, Stan had been more than prepared for coming back to school. While the Marshes moved back to their old house when the teenage boy started seventh grade, his dingbat of a father had been pretty adamant towards simultaneously working as a geologist again and running the _Tegridy Farms_.

The time he lost while being on the hemp farm Stan had for sure made up in the last couple of weeks of his summer holidays by playing soccer and football with the guys whenever they could. And since they were at the age when they had started discovering what mixing a little bit of alcohol into their drinks can do and how much their moods could actually get lifted, Stan and his friends would occasionally indulge themselves into that whenever there wasn't any adult supervision.

And what had been sort of an extra pep in Stan's step was for sure a very successful football season he had during his Freshman year.

Although he didn't play as a starting quarterback for the majority of the school year, an opportunity for him to make it onto the starting team came when Scott Gaffrey, school's main quarterback star, suffered such a terrible knee injury that it hadn't allowed him to play football for at least six months.

Because Stan had mostly been Scott's first substitute, he was bumped up to play on the starting team. Gaining the position on the starting team only inspired the raven haired teenager to finally show everyone just how much of an immensely talented and skillful football player he was. And it had for sure worked out very well, since the South Park Cows football team won nearly all of their games during the school year, including the Park County football championship.

And now with him _finally_ getting the well deserved spot on the starting team, Stan was determined to improve his football skills even more and to enjoy every single moment of it.

While the rest of his classmates had scurried off to their gym class period, the raven haired teenager was happy to have his very first football practice of the new school year. It definitely felt good to get some workout right after the snoozefest that was his tenth grade History class, but it wasn't like he had paid too much attention to the lecture anyway.

After running a few warm-up laps around the oval track, Stan began his football practice, while the rest of his friends were either playing basketball, soccer or were just screwing around.

The dark haired quarterback inhaled deeply, before huffing out a heavy breath and tossing the football yards down the field for Clyde to catch it. Stan gave his brunette friend a thumbs up, as he caught the football in his hand once again and threw it back to him. He then walked over to the sideline to pick up another football and to toss it to another one of his teammates.

But just as he was about to retrieve the football from the grassy field, Stan felt his heart race as he heard a very sweet, familiar voice in the background. He turned his head around, feeling his heart skip a beat as soon as he spotted his ex-girlfriend.

And there was Wendy, looking as gorgeous as she had _always_ been.

She was standing on the grassy area near the oval running track and played volleyball with Bebe, Red, Nichole, Heidi and Annie. The raven haired girl wore an oversized white shirt, a pair of gray sweatpants and her gym class sneakers. Her long, dark hair was pulled into a ponytail sitting on the back of her head.

Stan turned around to glance briefly at his ex-girlfriend, and much to his surprise, she glanced right back at him and mirrored the subtle smirk that had been plastered across his face. She turned back towards the girls and continued to play volleyball with them, enjoying whatever the hilariously pointless conversation they had been having.

And even the simplest smirk he swapped with his ex-girlfriend was more than enough for Stan's heart to skip a shy beat, but also to remind him of just how much things between the two of them had actually changed over the past year and a half – _that_ realization made his face drop into a small frown.

Stan and Wendy's break up in the eighth grade hadn't only affected the dark haired girl.

Although they both decided that breakup was the best option, Stan still felt incredibly heart-broken, but not to the point where he had considered joining the Goth kids again. He was more than ready to be on friendly terms with his ex-girlfriend and felt incredibly relieved when Wendy told him that she hadn't had any problems with that. Although they weren't talking to each other much, both Stan and Wendy were glad that there hadn't been any bad blood left between them, compared to their previous three breakups.

With them transitioning from elementary school to high school, Wendy and Stan were still on okay terms and would occasionally exchange small talk, mostly due to the fact that their respective best friends began dating each other.

However, it wasn't until Wendy joined the school's debate team at the start of Freshman year and became friends with Lucas Hoffman, a Sophomore student and one of the biggest brainiacs in their school.

He was not only intelligent, but also kind, charming and _very_ good looking. He and Wendy had a lot of things in common, including holding the debates on various topics and world issues. And in the span of a few months of them hanging out together, Wendy found herself slowly forgetting about her ex-boyfriend and began developing feelings for the handsome Sophomore instead. Lucas finally asked her out on a date a couple of weeks later and they started dating not long after that.

At first, Stan didn't seem to be that bothered by the fact that his ex-girlfriend had decided to move on from him and start dating someone else. However, the more he started to realize just how much happier Wendy seemed to be with Lucas, the more he felt himself becoming jealous anytime he would glance over at his ex-girlfriend and saw her indulging herself in the P.D.A. with her new boy-toy. And it especially made his heart drop in the pits of his stomach whenever Wendy let out a simple 'love you' to her new boyfriend.

And with the school's annual Valentine's Day dance approaching rapidly, Stan found himself feeling quite desperate to get a date of his own and to at least stop thinking about his beautiful ex-girlfriend.

It certainly came as a big surprise to him when Lola, one of his ex-girlfriend's closest friends for years, asked him to accompany her to the dance. And Stan accepted it, mostly because he didn't want to go the dance without a date and because he _actually_ found Lola to be quite a nice and gorgeous girl – a complete one-eighty from what he had thought about her after the whole cutest boy list debacle back in the fourth grade.

But their innocent Valentine's Day dance date slowly lead to them becoming more than friends and deciding to take a shot at dating each other. And for the first time in a while, Stan could actually feel himself growing feelings for someone else.

The fact that his ex-girlfriend was happier in a relationship with some other guy didn't seem to bother the raven haired teenage boy that much anymore.

Although Stan and Lola's relationship was going smoothly for the first couple of months, it hadn't been long before Lola started nagging her boyfriend to hang out with her more and more, often causing him to miss the football practice in order to spend time with her and not let her down. And unfortunately for Lola, all of this had been happening right when he stepped up as the main quarterback for the school's football team.

With him suddenly becoming busier than ever with football and Lola's naggings becoming more prominent, Stan found himself in a difficult position. While he loved hanging out with his girlfriend and enjoyed the time they would spend together, deep down the teenager knew that his number one passion had always been football. And that was why him breaking up with Lola seemed like an inevitable scenario.

Coincidentally, around the same time of Stan breaking up with Lola, the rumors about Lucas being caught cheating on Wendy spread like wildfire. The raven haired beauty could not have dumped his cheating ass faster, certainly not being in the mood to hear any one of Lucas' dumb explanations about why he cheated on her and how sorry he felt over the whole situation.

Their respective breakups brought Stan and Wendy back on the same page with one another.

They hadn't spoken to each other up until Craig organized an end of the Freshman year party for all of their classmates. It was there when both of them talked about everything that had happened in their lives over the past few months, and after taking into consideration everything they had been through together, they decided to be on friendly terms once again and to try it for real this time.

And ever since the end of their Freshman year, they had been able to do that without a hitch.

* * *

On the opposite end of grassy field, Wendy was playing volleyball with all of her closest girlfriends. The inseparable group of friends laughed their ears off and talked about many different things, including about what all of them were doing over the summertime and their usual teenage shenanigans.

After some time, Wendy, Bebe and Red decided to start walking laps around the oval track.

''What's up with you and Stan? As far as I know, you guys haven't been on the best of terms lately.'', Red pondered, gaining the attention of her raven haired friend.

''Well, when Craig threw that party at the end of our Freshman year, Stan and I decided to be friendly again. If you take into account that both of us came to the decision to end our relationship, I don't see any reason why him and I can't be friends with each other.''

''Isn't he in all of your classes?'', Bebe chimed in.

''Well, what can I do about it? Also, he's in all of my classes except for the AP Chem.'', Wendy commented. ''But as if that's gonna' make _any_ difference to how things are between us? Actually, I'm perfectly content with the way they are.''

''Okay Wends, if you say so.'', the beautiful blonde replied. ''Why don't you try and meet someone els-''.

Wendy sharply cut her best friend off, narrowing her eyes at her. ''Haven't I been clear enough or what? I'm just not in a mood to be in a relationship, or anything even close to it.''

Slightly taken aback by her best friend's agitated tone, Bebe could only shrug her shoulders in defeat. Was it worth to try and convince Wendy that having a boyfriend wasn't such a bad thing, considering the fact that she was cheated on?

That was one thing Bebe wanted to leave out for her best friend to decide.

"Look, what Lucas did to you was pretty fucking pathetic, I'm not gonna' sugarcoat it. The fact that he's popular and that a lot of girls swoon over him doesn't necessarily help him, okay? Sure, he was very nice and funny when we first got to know him, but he's still a cheating asshole at the end of the day.", Red responded, smiling softly at her raven haired friend.

Twisting a long strand of her black hair around her fingers, Wendy groaned out softly. "Well, he might've been my type, but after those six months I wasted on dating him, I just don't have anything positive to say about him, ugh. If anything, I'm in the relationship with books.''

Bebe and Red both chuckled in unison, causing Wendy to giggle at her two closest girl friends. ''So what about your party on Friday?''

''Oh, don't worry about it. My parents are going out of town for a weekend with my aunt Laura, uncle Thomas and my cousin Tricia. It's sort of a family vacation or some shit.'', Red explained, flicking away a loose strand of her red hair behind her ear.

''Awesome! And how many people did you invite?'', Bebe asked her vibrant haired friend, before all three girls sat down on the grass.

''Uh, not a lot. You guys are obviously invited.'', Red laughed, referring to their tight-knit sextet of friends. ''Craig, Tweek and their gang will for sure come. As well as Stan, Butters, Kenny, Kyle and Cartman, unfortunately.''

''Sixteen people? Are you sure that's not too much people?'', Wendy replied, laughing sheepishly.

''It's not really. And besides, this is just a fun get-together party for all of us from elementary school.''

A smug smirk popped up in the corner of Wendy's lips. ''But, what if some of us chip in the extra money to buy the booze?''

Slightly taken aback by Wendy's sudden eagerness to join the whole party planning process, Bebe and Red swapped a curious glance. "Since when are you interesting in partying? And even weirder, _did_ you just express a desire to drink booze?"

"Well yeah, I can cut it loose at least once.", the raven haired teenaged girl smirked cheekily.

"I guess we'll have to get Clyde's sister to buy us some booze then.'', Bebe replied. "Isn't it ironic how your dad owns a fucking bar in SoDoSoPa, yet he won't allow you to at least drink a can of beer in his presence?"

"I know, but I can't do too much about it though.", Red heaved her shoulders up and down, plucking out random pieces of grass and fiddling with them in between her fingertips.

On the opposite side of the grassy area where Wendy, Bebe and Red were sitting, Stan had still been practicing football with some of his teammates. They were going over their usual football stuff and were throwing the ball around – just for shits and giggles.

The raven haired quarterback launched the ball towards Clyde, who caught it perfectly once again. But as he spotted his blonde ex-girlfriend sitting on the grass, the brunette teenager smirked cheekily to himself and decided to impress Bebe with his athletic abilities.

Pulling his arm all the way back, Clyde launched a seemingly perfect football for Stan to catch.

Or at least what he thought was a perfect football.

His ball might have been flying a bit too far. As a matter-of-factly, the football was flying so far that it bounced off the ground and hurled right in Wendy's direction.

''Fucking shit, dude!'', Stan yelled. ''Wendy, watch out!''

Luckily, the raven haired girl was able to hear his words just in time. She covered her head from the hurling football, making sure that it deflected away from her and bounced onto the grassy field. The teenage girl grunted out as soon as she had spotted a bruise forming on her right forearm.

In the distance, she could hear Stan yelling at Clyde and his stupid attempt at trying to impress Bebe.

"Clyde, what the fuck was that?"

Wendy honestly couldn't hear what were Clyde's reasons for throwing the football around so aimlessly, but she did manage to lock her chocolate brown eyes with Stan's beautiful blue eyes once he turned his head towards her direction.

And the teenage girl felt her heart skipping a shy beat, as her and Stan swapped an affectionate smile with each other.

* * *

Friday night couldn't have rolled around faster, as well as the party Rebecca had been preparing to throw.

The tight-knit group of freshly crowned Sophomores was more than eager to enjoy their very first party in the new school year. Although their first week of school went relatively smoothly, that hadn't made their desires to party and simply have a good time _any_ less obvious.

About a dozen of pizzas were ordered and enough snacks were put out on the table for everyone to eat. Excited teenagers managed to buy enough juices and punch for all sixteen of them, while some of them chipped in the extra money for Clyde's sister Charlotte to hook them up with a few six-packs of beer.

The party hostess truly outdid herself this time, and Red couldn't have been prouder about organizing a nice party for all of her friends.

Everyone seemed to have a very good time.

Tweek and Craig were snuggled up against each other in a black leather armchair, slowly taking sips of tropical flavored punch from their cups and occasionally swapping a few delicious kisses here and there. Kyle and his beautiful girlfriend Bebe were the only couple dancing together on the quasi dancefloor, but were soon joined by Token and Nichole.

Clyde, Jimmy, Butters, Cartman, Kenny, Heidi, Annie and the party hostess Red were all gathered around in a small circle on the floor. They were all playing _Drinkopoly_ that Red had pulled out from the basement and were laughing their ears off at the stupid shit some of them were forced to do.

The only two teenagers that hadn't been either dancing with the two lovely couples or sitting on the floor with the drinking crew, were Stan and Wendy.

The raven haired girl was sitting on the sofa, holding a half empty can of beer in her left hand and tapping her manicured fingertips against it. She was watching some of oldest friends getting tipsier and tipsier with each sips of drinks they had taken, but it definitely didn't fail to make her burst into an array of giggles.

From one corner of her chocolate brown eye, she could see her ex-boyfriend sitting on the ottoman and also watching their friends fall under the alcoholic influence. Wendy allowed herself to glance over at Stan, and could feel heart once again skipping a shy beat as she interlocked her eyes with Stan's.

And suddenly, the dark haired teenage boy got up from the ottoman and zipped over to where his ex-girlfriend was sitting. Stan offered her a small smile as he plonked himself down on the comfortable piece of furniture. "Hey."

Brushing a loose strand of her raven locks behind her ear, Wendy smiled sweetly at Stan. "Hey you."

"Having fun?"

"Yeah, I didn't expect the party to be this fun, but it is awesome."

Mirroring the smirk Wendy had on her face, Stan chuckled softly to himself. His eyes flicked away from her face down to her still slightly bruised right forearm, which was now decorated with a faint blue-ish purple bruise.

"Is your arm okay? I mean, I couldn't exactly do too much about preventing the ball from hitting you."

Giggling sweetly, Wendy brought her beer can to her lips and took a small sip out of it. "Yeah, it's fine. It was very nice of you to warn me about the fucking football flying towards me."

''No problem. I saw someone getting hit in the head by football once and it definitely wasn't a good sight, trust me."

Both raven haired teenagers stewed in blissful silence for a few seconds, before the group of tipsy teenagers sitting on the floor all clinked their glasses together happily, enticing Stan and Wendy to do the same with their beer cans.

Offering Wendy a friendly smile, Stan lifted his can of beer up and raised an inviting eyebrow at the beautiful girl sitting next to him. ''Cheers to the new school year.''

Smiling softly at him, Wendy raised her beer can and gently tapped it against Stan's. "Cheers indeed."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello dear readers!
> 
> Firstly, I wanted to thank each and every one of you for taking the time to read this story. I honestly thought nobody would be interested into reading my very first multi-chaptered fanfic, but all the reviews, follows and favorites I've received so far are simply awesome.
> 
> After making the first chapter a little bit more oriented on Wendy and her shenanigans, I decided to make the second chapter more focused on Stan and what he had been up to. I wanted to give you some perspective into how Stan dealt with Wendy having a new boyfriend and him getting with Lola – sort of as a way for him trying to get over his ex-girlfriend. I mean, it was pretty obvious that they would eventually start talking to each other again, right?
> 
> Also, do you think that Lola might be a bump in the road towards Stan and Wendy getting back together?
> 
> I'll see you guys next time!
> 
> \- xoxo, whisperinthemoonlight. ❤


	3. [small steps]

It was the middle of September now and about a month had passed since the start of new school year at South Park High School.

With a lot of students going back to their usual routines that consisted of a lack of good night's sleep, running on litres of caffeinated goodness and binge-watching a fuck ton of shows on Netflix/Hulu (or any other streaming service for that matter), the end results were gruelling piles of homework and assignments that had been growing every day. But also, a lot of students joined school's surprisingly long list of extracurricular activities and sport teams, thus adding a _little_ bit of productivity and excitement into their otherwise boring school days.

But to Stan Marsh, finding the perfect balance between doing his school work efficiently, playing as a quarterback on the school's football team and having enough time to hang out with his best buddies hadn't been such a difficult task. Definitely _not_ as hard as he first anticipated it would be.

Glancing over to the clock once again, the raven haired teenager huffed out nervously, slumping himself comfortably in his desk chair that was at the back of the classroom. To the right of Stan, Craig was being caught up in a hilariously dumb conversation with his boyfriend Tweek ever since the bell rang for the start of their fourth period that day.

The noisy chatter shared between the Sophomore students was abruptly ended when their tenth grade Biology teacher entered inside the classroom and made a direct beeline for her desk.

Mrs. Harvey was a shorter blonde woman in her mid thirties. While upon a first glance she didn't seem to be a strict professor, she had actually been very good at keeping control over twenty or something Sophomores sitting in her class. But more importantly, she was one of those professors that _actually_ knew how to make each lecture more fun and productive, instead of just going over the lecture material for the sake of getting through it. Those were just a couple of reasons why she quickly became one of the tenth grade students' favorite teachers, despite her being occasionally stern towards them.

''Okay students, considering the fact that last week we spent a lot of time dissecting various organisms and learning about their anatomy, this week I decided to mix things up a little by splitting you all into pairs and giving you an assigment to do. Of course, your assigments will be based on a topic you decide to choose with your partner from the list of topics I prepared beforehand. You will also be required to do a short presentation on your assigment, summing up the most important parts.'', Mrs. Harvey explained, gaining the attention of all of her students.

Within a split second of their teacher mentioning the word ''assignment'', almost all of the students groaned in unison and began their noisy chatter again. Of course, their conversations were once again abrupted, and it wasn't their teacher who interrupted their chatter this time, but rather the door of the classroom creaking open.

All the eyes were suddenly focused on the raven haired girl standing in the doorway, clearly being out of breath and in the fear of not being allowed to enter the classroom due to her very unusual tardiness.

''Mrs. Harvey, I'm _so_ sorry for being late!''

''Miss Testaburger...'', the blonde woman began in a slightly agitated tone, instantly catching Stan's attention and making him turn his head towards the door. And he felt a small smile wriggle across his lips as he noticed Wendy standing outside the classroom.

''You are indeed very lucky for not missing out on anything important so far.''

Wendy's excuse was almost immediate. ''I'm sorry, but I got caught up in a conversation with my volleyball coach about the upcoming pre-season game against the Evergreen Eagles. I promise that next time I'll be in class on time.''

''Very well. Please take a seat in the closest empty desk to you. From what I can see, there's an empty seat next to Mr. Marsh.''

Completely disregarding the second part of her teacher's sentence, Wendy's eyes immediately travelled to the front of the classroom, where the majority of her friends were sitting. Much to her dismay, the raven haired beauty's usual seat was occupied by Kyle, who was sitting right next to his girlfriend Bebe.

Deciding that there was absolutely nothing she could do about Kyle occupying her seat today, Wendy shrugged her shoulders in defeat and finally closed the door behind her, scurrying off to take a seat in the empty desk next to her ex-boyfriend's.

When her eyes locked with Stan's charming blue ones, the teenage girl felt her heart flutter slightly in her chest. She gave her ex-boyfriend a small smirk, before scraping out the chair and sitting down in her desk. ''Hi.''

''Hey.'', Stan chuckled, turning his head towards his ex-girlfriend.

''Did I miss out on _anything_?'', Wendy whispered as she took out her pencil case, Biology textbook and notebook from the depths of her backpack.

''Well, we're all going to be split up into pairs and do the assigment on a specific topic. Mrs. Harvey already made the list, so it's up to us to choose the topic we wanna' talk about. And we have to do a short presentation as well.''

''Oh goodie.'', Wendy sung sarcastically, resting her chin against her hand.

''What, you're not excited about this? I thought you at least would be the one that's happy about doing an assignment from Biology.''

''No, it's not that I'm not excited about doing an assigment on an interesting topic. But, the last time when I was given a Biology assignment to do, I was partnered with Bebe. She did _maybe_ like twenty percent of the whole job, because she spent the majority of time with Kyle instead of doing her part of the assignment!''

''Wasn't that last year? Because Kyle and I decided to do an assigment together and he barely did his half of it.''

''Well, I guess it is. Since Kyle and Bebe began dating right around the time me and her were supposed to start working on our assigment together.''

The rest of the period seemed to stretch on forever, but it was pretty interesting nonetheless (as per usual). It wasn't up until the last five minutes of the class when Mrs. Harvey finally pulled out her topic list and was waiting for the students to be done with their chatter, so that they could pick out their assignment partner and the topic they were going to write about.

Once almost all the students had picked out their partners and the topics they wanted to write about, there was about a handful of topics left to choose from.

''You know, even though I'm familiar with the fact that Bebe isn't _exactly_ the most reliable person to do an assignment with, I'm still kinda baffled by the fact that she chose Kyle over me.''

''Well, Kyle's one of the best students in our class when it comes to science subjects. Can't really blame Bebe for wanting to work with him.'', Stan argued. ''Besides, they're definitely going to use this as an excuse to hang out with each more.''

''True that.'', Wendy replied quickly, flicking through her Biology textbook.

Suddenly, a seemingly weird idea came to the forefront of Stan's mind. The dark haired teenager bit down on his bottom lip tentatively, before glancing over to his ex-girlfriend. He scratched the back of his neck nervously, trying to come up with an ideal way of how to express his offer and not wanting to make Wendy think that the offer would imply them doing something more than just working together on an assignment.

Because he _definitely_ didn't want Wendy to get the wrong impression.

''Hey Wendy...'', Stan began in a slightly nervous tone, catching the teenage girl's attention. She raised a curious eyebrow, prompting her ex-boyfriend to come forward with his friendly idea.

''I know this _might_ seem weird, but do you want to be my partner for this assignment?''

Slightly taken aback by Stan's idea, Wendy quickly allowed that thought to drift across her mind. ''Are you implying that we could do an assigment together?''

''Well, if you want to. I usually get all of my shit done on time, mostly because I don't wanna' deal with it later. That's why I think we could work on this assignment together and finish it in _no_ time.''

''I guess we could?'', the raven haired beauty heaved her shoulders up and down, before smirking at Stan. And just as he was about to respond to Wendy, he was suddenly cut off by their teacher suggesting another topic for the assignment.

''The next topic is about hormones, specifically about their role in the functioning of human body and how they affect it. Is anyone interested?''

Wanting to claim the assignment idea before anyone else even had the chance to pick it out, Wendy impulsively raised her hand. ''Mrs. Harvey, Stan and I can do an assignment on this theme.''

Mrs. Harvey nodded in approval towards the two raven haired teenagers sitting at the back, before she waited for everyone else to pick out the remaining topics.

''Do not expect me to do all the work and that you're going to sit on your ass and do nothing.'', Wendy sniped in a teasing voice, setting her Biology textbook down on Stan's desk.

''Woah, since when did you get all snappy?'', the dark haired quarterback chuckled in disbelief, before shaking his head playfully at his ex-girlfriend.

''I'm _just_ joking Stan. Relax.'', Wendy smiled softly.

Stan mimicked the smile his ex-girlfriend had on her face, but decided to smirk playfully at her instead. They both decided to make a rough outline for their assignment and to take some quick notes in their respective notebooks, sharing a laugh or two as they went through Wendy's textbook.

From the opposite end of the classroom, Lola could feel herself slowly stewing in agitation, as her deep blue eyes peered over to the pair of raven haired teenagers working together.

She still couldn't get over the fact that her ex-boyfriend was suddenly back on friendly terms with his ravenette counterpart. And what was even more upsetting to the brunette teenage girl, was the fact that Stan _still_ seemed to have that special twinkle form in his dazzling blue eyes whenever Wendy spoke to him.

The twinkle in his dazzling blue eyes that had been concealing one, slightly inescapable certitude.

Whether the dark haired boy wanted to admit it or not, he hadn't been over Wendy quite as much as he wanted everyone to think he was.

* * *

Gripping the handle of her Michael Kors handbag, Lucy Cantarini couldn't have gotten up from her seat faster in order to finally walk out of her tenth grade History class. She was eager to spend her recess either studying in the library or hanging out with her new girl friends.

However, the sixteen year-old teenage girl hadn't been feeling particularly well throughout the day, getting slightly more annoyed due to the fact that her History teacher nearly kicked her out of class and that she was forced to help out her parents at their family's restaurant after school.

But did the beautiful blonde give two shits about nearly getting kicked out of class and helping out her parents? Definitely not.

Lucia 'Lucy' Cantarini had been living in South Park for nearly a couple of months now. Thanks to her Italian-American parents becoming the new owners of the Italian restaurant _Buca de Faggoncini_ , her family moved from the hustle and bustle of New York City to the small mountain town in the middle of Colorado. Of course, the blonde teenage girl wasn't at all happy with the fact that she had to change her surroundings, but her parents had been trying their best to reassure their daughter that living in a smaller town like South Park would only do favors for her.

Lucy had long platinum blonde hair with choppy, slightly uneven bangs. She wasn't gifted with a particularly great eyesight, so her azure blue eyes were hidden behind a pair of black reading glasses. She was on the slightly thicker side, but she wasn't tall either, standing barely at five foot three inches. She wore a black bomber jacket with a red off the shoulder top underneath it, a pair of dark blue ripped high-waisted skinny jeans and black ankle platform boots.

Sauntering her way through the double door of the school, Lucy made a beeline for the back of school's gymnasium. It had been one place where she loved to go during the recess and to have some time on her own, but even more importantly, where she could smoke in peace with little to-no chances of getting caught.

The teenage girl sat down on one of the discarded wooden pallets and pulled out a pack of her favorite Marlboro cigarettes from the depths of her handbag. She flicked the lighter a couple of times and lit up her cigarette, taking a long drag of it. She inhaled deeply, instantly feeling a little bit more relaxed.

_Why the fuck did my parents have to move us from New York City to this fucking redneck mountain town in the middle of Colorado?_

But hey, if moving from such a large city like New York City to a smaller mountain town like South Park meant getting better business opportunities and life opportunities for Lucy and her family, then the blonde teenage girl didn't really have a reason to complain about it.

Groaning out, Lucy took another drag of her cigarette and puffed out small smoke rings in the air. She pulled her phone from the pocket of her jeans and noticed that she had two messages from one of her new school friends, Wendy Testaburger.

_'Coming to recess with us?'_

Smiling gently to herself, Lucy clacked her matte black manicured fingertips against the wooden pallet, before typing out a quick message to her raven haired friend.

_'I might catch up with you guys later. I'm having a little smoke break :)'_

Although she wasn't exactly the most sociable person in the world, Lucy felt incredibly relieved with the fact that she had made a few friends ever since moving to South Park. Out of all of them, Wendy was the first one to reach out to her and help her settle more easily in their high school. She had also been on relatively good terms with the rest of the Wendy's friends and formed decent friendships with some of her male classmates, predominantly with David, Jimmy, Token, Wendy's ex-boyfriend Stan and Butters.

However, Lucy's ten minutes of solitude came to a sudden halt when she heard some heavy footsteps approaching the back of school's gymnasium. In a fleeting moment of panic, Lucy instantly tossed her cigarette down to the ground and stepped on it, doing her best to put out the thin stick of nicotine.

But much to her surprise, it wasn't one of the school's staff members that showed up, but rather one of the Sophomore students – at least what Lucy presumed them to be.

Noticing that the small alley wasn't empty, the seemingly unknown student raised his hands up in defense and smiled sheepishly at the blonde teenager. ''Oh hey, sorry. Didn't know that someone else was in here.''

The unknown student was a rather tall, pudgy brunette teenager with piercing blue eyes. He wore a red coat that nicely accentuated his colossal waistline, a pair of blue denim jeans and slightly worn out Converse sneakers. His messy brown hair was partially covered by a turquoise blue hat with yellow poof ball, and he also had a neon green backpack slung lazily against his back.

Chuckling to herself, Lucy replied back almost instantly. ''Why are you excusing yourself? It's not like I'm the only one that's allowed to smoke in here.''

''Well, I usually don't see anyone else coming here during the recess. Not _even_ those Goth fags.''

''I've always assumed that no one else smokes behind the gymnasium, and this is my go-to spot when I want to get away from everyone and smoke in peace.''

''I see.'', the hefty brunette teenager replied back. ''I don't think we've met yet. I'm Eric, but everyone refers to me by my last name, which is Cartman."

Widening her eyes in surprise, Lucy chuckled and cocked a curious eyebrow at the brunette teenager standing opposite of her. ''Cartman? I think I've heard some things about you.''

''Well, South Park is a small town. Everyone knows everyone, so yeah, don't be too surprised with that.''

''Yeah yeah, I get it...'', the blonde teenager droned, getting up from the wooden pallet to shake hands with her new buddy. "I'm Lucia, but you can call me Lucy."

Cartman shook his hand with Lucy's before shoving his hands inside the pockets of his red coat, taking a seat on the wooden pallet adjacent to the one Lucy was sitting on. "Nice to meet you too.''

He sat down on the wooden pallet that quickly got a little bent from all the pressure the fat tub of lard had been putting on it. He unzipped his backpack and took out a packet of cigarettes. He opened the small rectangular package and took out one cigarette, as well the lighter from the pocket of his red coat. Glancing over at Lucy, Cartman offered her to take one another cancer stick for herself, which she happily obliged to. She smirked at her new brunette smoking buddy, before taking one cigarette out of the package and putting it in her mouth.

''What brand are these cigarettes?'', she asked, examining the thin stick of tobacco.

''I don't know, it's some random, cheap and crappy brand of cigarettes that my mom bought for me from the gas station.'', Cartmain explained briefly, taking one drag of his cancer stick. ''I usually stick to Marlboro, but these can make do as well, I suppose.''

The two teenagers were smoking their cigarettes in blissful silence, before Lucy coughed out to clear her throat.

''So...'', she began, blowing the cigarette smoke into the cool September air. ''From what I've gathered and heard from the people in this town about you, you aren't _exactly_ the most liked person in here, am I right?''

"Yeah, I'm not really liked at all _._ But to be completely honest, I don't give two shits about it.'', Cartman admitted blunty, taking a drag of his own cigarette. ''Most of the things stem from the fact that I've done many, _many_ fucked up things over the years.''

''Oh yeah?'', Lucy spoke cynically, taking another drag of her half-smoked cigarette. ''You did?''

''Well, it's true.''

''I mean, I'm not exactly an angel myself and I did do _some_ shit, but could it be worse than stealing from my parents' family restaurant cash register to buy myself cigarettes? Or getting into numerous fights with other people in my former high school?''

''Damn, that is messed up, but it's extremely miniscule compared to the shit that I've done. Are sure you _really_ wanna' hear about some of the fucked up shit I've done over the years?''

''Well, since we're already at it, you might as well just go ahead and talk about it.'', Lucy conceded. ''But, it's not like I asked you about the fucked up things you've done anyway.''

''Where the hell do I begin?'', Cartman said, taking a long drag of his cigarette. ''Well, I faked being retarded just for the sake of winning the special needs Olympics and completely embarrassed myself during the competition. Then I faked having Tourette's syndrome, used crack-addicted babies for shits and giggles, lead a Neo-Nazi rally and intentionally infected my 'friend' Kahl with HIV.''

''And then I got my biological father and his wife shot at a ranch, got them ground up into chilli and fed them to a guy that later turned out to be my step brother, Scott Tenorman.''

Lucy simply couldn't believe what she was hearing. But then again, she had sort of expected Cartman to be on some level of fucked up. She took another long drag from her cigarette and once she reached the butt of it, she tossed it on the ground.

''Jesus fucking Christ, how the fuck you haven't gotten locked up in a prison yet?'', the blonde teenage girl stepped on her cigarette to put it out with her ankle boot. ''You're _really_ fucked up.''

''Tell me something I _don't_ know.'', Cartman replied sarcastically, locking his ocean blue eyes with azure blue eyes of the blonde teenager sitting next to him.

''And do you at least feel a little bit bad about all the fucked up things you've done?''

''I have definitely felt slightly more remorseful over the past few years.'', Cartman explained, extinguishing his cigarette. ''But, I'm _still_ a giant douchebag whatever way you put it.''

''I'm a big believer in that people _can_ eventually change. Maybe some day you will be able to say that you're truly sorry for all the messed up things you did.''

''I might've been quite a fucked up person before, but a turning point in my life was when I turned thirteen and my mom gave birth to my little step-brother. My mom met my now step-father Joey when I was in fifth grade and they got married not even after a year and a half of dating. She also got pregnant and gave birth to my step-brother Danny, whom I love very, _very_ much.''

''So, you can say that having a little brother changed your outlook on life and made you realize that you actually need to be a better person?''

''Yeah, when you put it like that, I can say that Danny made me realize that I've been a very fucked up person before. Also, it did take me a while to warm up to my step-father, but I can say that he's definitely the best father figure I've had in my whole life.''

''Of course you can, because you turned your own biological father into a fucking chili.'', Lucy said sarcastically, crossing her arms over her chest.

''I know that's extremely messed up, I can't go back in time to change it.''

After a few seconds of silence, Cartman spoke up again, catching Lucy's attention. ''You're Italian, right?''

Slightly surprised by Cartman's correct assumption, she smirked at the pudgy teen. ''Well yeah, but I was born and raised in the United States. My parents are a second-generation of Italian immigrants from Naples and Palermo.'', she smiled teasingly. ''How did you guess?''

''I don't know, to be completely honest. Lucia _doesn't_ really sound English to me, so I just assumed that it was either of Italian or of Hispanic origin.''

''Well, you are correct though.''

Lucy pulled out her phone from the pocket of her jeans and unlocked it, but her eyes soon widened in surprise. She hastily got up from the wooden pallet and snatched her bag from the ground. ''Oh shit, recess will be over in a couple of minutes and I have to be in my English classroom soon!''

''Tenth grade English?'', Cartman raised an eyebrow curiously.

''Yeah, how do you know?'', Lucy confirmed.

''Because I have to be there as well. We can walk together to the class, if you want to.'', the brunette teenager replied, putting his cigarette packet inside the pocket of his coat.

Affirming the grip on her expensive handbag, Lucy looked over her shoulder and signalled for Cartman to walk with her to their tenth grade English classroom.

''Teehee…'', an adorable, cute giggle could be heard in the background. ''I'll make sure that Eric falls in love with this Italian beauty.'', Cupid Me gushed adoringly, reaching for an arrow from his quiver and attempting to shoot it right in Cartman's direction.

* * *

''So, what is the topic of your Biology assignment?''

''Ugh, it's all about the photosynthesis. _Very_ interesting topic.'', Bebe commented sarcastically, spinning around in her desk chair. ''Kyle picked it out for us, though.''

''I think you care more about the fact that you're doing this assignment with your boyfriend than the topic you guys chose to write about.'', Wendy replied back, glancing up for the briefest moment from her best friend's laptop.

It was Saturday night, and Wendy was staying over at Bebe's house for a sleepover and more importantly, for some much needed catch-up and deserved girl time.

Between the two girls being busy with their volleyball practices, cheerleading practice and the seemingly never-ending piles of homework, the two long-time best friends hadn't had much time to catch up on everything they missed out on over the week.

The raven haired beauty had been laying cross-legged in her best friend's bed for the past fifteen minutes, trying to find a good movie for the two of them to watch. And at the same time, Bebe was busy painting her nails with white gel nail polish and pushing the stubborn blonde locks away from her face every few seconds or so.

''You have a rather interesting partner to do the assignment with, hm?'', Bebe looked over her shoulder towards her best friend, who was still looking for a good movie option. But the blonde teenager's comment immediately made Wendy snap her head up.

The dark haired teenage girl snorted. ''What? Stan and me?''

''No Wendy – I'm talking about Romeo and fucking Juliet.'', Bebe rolled her eyes. ''Of course I'm referring to _you_ and Stan.''

''Oh that, it's nothing. Trust me.''

Completely disregarding the whole process of painting her fingernails, Bebe hopped from her desk chair over to her bed swiftly and lifted her hands up in an attempt not to smudge her wet nail polish all over the pink bedspread. ''Bullshit Wendy. You and Stan weren't on speaking terms for a while, and now out of a sudden you guys are assignment buddies?''

''Well, we _both_ came to a conclusion that working together could be a good idea. Do you remember what happened last time you and I had to do an assignment together?'', Wendy pondered, which only made Bebe roll her emerald green eyes in sheer annoyance.

''Maybe Kyle and I spent too much time together when we were supposed to be working with you and Stan on our respective projects. But you also gotta' cut me off some slack, because Kyle and I haven't been together for that long when that happened.''

''Well, it's fine. We _still_ nailed that whole assignment.'', Wendy smirked cheekily, reminding her best friend of how proud both of them felt over getting an excellent grade.

''I also noticed that Lola was glaring at you and Stan the _whole_ time after you said that you guys will work together.'', Bebe said as she got up from her bed and plonked herself in the desk chair again.

Wendy almost immediately rolled her eyes and scoffed out, not giving two shits about her ex-friend's opinion about the state of friendship she had with Stan. ''You really think I care that much about her? Lola was the one who stopped talking to me right after she and Stan got together.''

''Well, she _actually_ thinks she is some hot shit just because her aunt happens to be our principal.'', Bebe said as she grabbed her hair comb and began brushing through her tangled mess of a hair. ''Not to mention that she started acting like a total bitch just because she was dating the school's main quarterback.''

''Luckily for her, nepotism _does_ work in today's fucked up society.'', Wendy commented back sarcastically, before she finally picked out a movie for her and Bebe to watch. ''Hey, do you wanna' watch _Mean Girls 2_?''

''Are you fucking kidding me? I don't want to watch that lame excuse for a sequel to one of the best movies that was ever made!'', Bebe retorted.

''Alrighty then. We can watch _A Star Is Born_ with Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper then?''

''Sure!'', Bebe replied enthusiastically, plopping down on her bed next to Wendy.

After finally deciding on which movie they should watch, Bebe and Wendy made themselves popcorn and pulled out some candy stashed in one of Bebe's closet drawers. They were both enjoying one of their favorite movies, singing to the beautiful soundtracks and simply having a little bit of fun.

''Hey Wendy.'', Bebe suddenly spoke, catching the attention of her best friend.

''Yeah?'', the ravenette replied.

''Do you think that you and Stan working together on this assignment will help you guys, you know, maybe get closer to each other again?''

''Bebe...'', Wendy replied back in a slightly nervous tone, pinching the bridge of her nose as she continued. ''I've been pretty clear about _not_ wanting to be in a relationship. And no, I _don't_ think Stan and I will get closer thanks to us working on an assignment together. We're both perfectly content with the way things are between us – me at least.''

''Good, just checking.''

Wendy glanced over to her best friend once again, before deciding to shake off the annoying thought about her and Stan growing closer again.

But despite her being pretty straightforward towards denying that particular thought, there was one even more prominent emotion tugging at Wendy's heartstrings.

Because more than anything else, the dark haired girl was secretly hoping that Bebe's assumption would _actually_ turn out to be correct.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And then there was chapter three, all done and dusted!
> 
> This was definitely the longest chapter I've written so far, with over five thousand words. But honestly, I would be damned if I don't say that it's been worth writing this long and detailed of a chapter.
> 
> In this chapter I wanted to give you an introduction to my OC Lucia 'Lucy' Cantarini and a glimpse into her personality, specifically the way she interacts with Cartman. I actually can't believe I decided to make him act less like a sociopath, but rather like a normal human being for once, and I'm not going to lie, I kinda' like writing about Cartman having a more 'human' side to him.
> 
> I know that it might seem as if I'm slightly dragging out Stan and Wendy getting back together, but I'm not! Since I'm doing the whole slow burn concept, I want to make them slowly find their way back to each other through these adorable and cute moments.
> 
> One third of the story is complete and things are going to get a little bit more interesting in the following chapters. ;)
> 
> \- xoxo, whisperinthemoonlight. ❤


	4. [game of hearts]

Wendy breathed in heavily, before tossing the ball high above her head and smacking it as hard as she possibly could, launching it towards the opposite end of volleyball court for the 'rival' group of her teammates to make their move and to prevent the ball from hitting the ground in their side of the court.

The raven haired beauty usually played as a setter, since she was one of the taller girls in the volleyball squad and could commence the team's attacks _very_ skillfully, with much needed precision.

On the opposite side of the volleyball court, Nichole successfully caught the hurdling ball and passed it to Esther using the underarm pass. The tall, dark haired girl made the second move and passed the ball over to Bebe, who thwacked it towards the opposite end of the court and hoped for her 'rivals' to lose their rally this time.

But of course, Jenny had been more than ready as she managed to smack the ball in the right direction and successfully passed it over to Wendy, who hoisted herself up in the air and slammed the ball into the opposite side of the court with all the force she could muster, effectively winning another rally with her teammates.

Breathing out heavily, Wendy smiled to herself. Her feet thudded against the surface as she was pulled into another group hug by her teammates. All the girls were very exhausted, but _still_ felt incredibly proud of themselves and their improved game play.

A whistle blew for the end of another very tough, but productive and excellent volleyball practice.

''Awesome job girls!'', the girls' volleyball coach spoke, with a proud smile forming in the corner of her lips.

Mrs. Norbert was a shorter, fit brunette woman in her late twenties and one of the South Park High School's newest physical education teachers. Although she had only been coaching the girls' volleyball team for three years, she was definitely one of the people most responsible for making the South Park Cows quite a formidable and lethal volleyball team, with them having an excellent winning strike of nearly twenty five matches over the last two school years. Of course, the majority of their success came from having a great roster of players on all volleyball positions.

''Evergreen Eagles _aren't_ going to be an easy team to beat, since they've had quite a good winning streak in both home and away games. However, I'm sure that you girls will do your best to stop their lucky strike and beat them properly. They might've had their winning streak keeping them afloat, but some of their most important players are injured, which we could use to our advantage.''

''Coach, do you have any news about the team we are going to play against at the Homecoming game?'', Heidi asked, putting her long brunette hair into a ponytail and draping it over her left shoulder.

''Well, we were in the talks with North Park Avalanches about them possibly being a guest team at our Homecoming game this year, but because we _still_ haven't gotten any response back from North Park about their participation, we decided to cancel the game against them and chose to play with the Evergreen Eagles instead. They have expressed a strong desire to play against us, so they are going to be the guest team at our Homecoming game this year.'', Mrs. Norbert explained briefly.

''Okay girls, I'm quite pleased with today's practice. All of you have gotten better at your game play and our usually weaker defense has definitely improved a lot too!'', the volleyball coach spoke. ''You are all dismissed now. I will see you all on Wednesday, and of course, good luck!''

Wendy turned around on the spot and began to make her way towards the girls' locker room, putting her long raven black locks out of the now ruined ponytail and allowing them to cascade down her back. The dark haired volleyball captain walked inside the locker room and grabbed her sports duffel bag from the floor, taking out her roll-on deodorant. She got out of her slightly sweaty volleyball practice clothes and tossed them inside the duffel bag, putting on a pair of black skinny jeans and an oversized comfortable hoodie.

The raven haired teenager grabbed her sports duffel bag from the floor and swung it over the shoulder, waving goodbye to her teammates as she made her way out of the girls' locker room and began walking towards the gymnasium's exit. She walked around the corner into one of the many school hallways and noticed that the preparations for the Homecoming week had already started and were in full swing.

She soon walked inside the main corridor of the school and noticed that the walls had been slightly more decorated than before, with swirls and ribbons of all shapes and sizes hanging from them. The bulletin boards had posters put up on them, as well as the schedule for the Homecoming events that were set to happen in the upcoming week.

A lot of Sophomore students decided to volunteer in the preparations for the Homecoming week, primarily the female Sophomore students that chose to help out the Junior and Senior students with making and putting up various fancy green, black and white ribbons and streamers all over the school's hallways and the main corridor. Students that were slightly more tech savvy had helped out with setting up the electronic cables and lightning above the theatre stage, creating special effects for the upcoming school plays or making sure that the DJ booth would be ready for the Homecoming dance.

As Wendy was making her way down the corridor, she allowed her lips to wriggle into a small smile as she noticed a very familiar blonde figure sitting on one of the benches in the school's main hallway. They were clearly being _too_ busy fiddling with their phone to notice the dark haired girl approaching them.

"Hey Tweeks!"

The nervous blonde teenager flinched instantly, glancing up from his mobile phone screen to face the dark haired teenage girl standing relatively close to him. "Ack! Oh, hey Wendy!''

Tweek Tweak had still been the blonde ball of anxiety, although not as much as he was back in the elementary school.

Thanks to the joint efforts of his parents and his boyfriend Craig, the disquieted teenager was _finally_ able to get off the meth-laced coffee that he would consume in enormous quantities over the years, thus ending the seemingly never-ending cycles of constant jitters and nervousness. Although he hadn't been completely able to refrain himself from drinking the caffeinated goodness, he did switch to drinking only frappuccino or the decaffeinated coffee if he would be in the mood to consume anything with the tiniest hint of caffeine in it.

Smiling at her coffee-loving friend, Wendy plopped down next to Tweek on the bench and placed her volleyball duffel bag beside her. ''What's up?''

''Nng, n-nothing much, I'm just waiting for Craig to be done with his detention so that we can have dinner over at his h-house!'', Tweek explained briefly, taking another sip of his _Harbucks_ double frappuccino drink. ''W-what's up with you?''

''I was just done with my volleyball practice for this week and it was exhausting, to say the least. We have the Homecoming game against the Evergreen Eagles next week and our coach has been _really_ pushing us towards improving our general game play.'', Wendy replied.

''R-really? That's awesome.''

''Yeah, I'm pretty stoked for the game and I'm hoping that we hammer them.''

''W-well, I'm hoping you guys will do it! You've really been on a roll for the past y-year or so.''

''That's something that we're definitely gonna' try do to. I mean, even though it's only a Homecoming game and our rivals are usually weaker, this year we were supposed to play against the North Park Avalanches. However, they haven't been exactly timely when it came to talks about participating in our Homecoming game this year, so the school invited Evergreen Eagles volleyball team to play against us and they happily accepted our invite.'', Wendy pondered, clacking her fingernails against the smooth surface of the bench.

Taking another sip of frappuccino, Tweek smiled softly at the raven haired volleyball captain. ''Gah, I'm sure you will win again this y-''.

Before Tweek could even finish his sentence, the nervous blonde teenager flinched out at the sound of his mobile phone buzzing loudly twice. He placed his frappuccino cup down and unlocked his phone swiftly, before a small, twitchy smile spread across his face. ''GAH! Craig's done with his detention for the day and told me he's going to be here in a few minutes.''

''Dude, Craig's truly lucky to have you as a boyfriend. You decided to wait for him to be done with his detention so that you can hang out afterwards. I call that being one hundred percent dedicated to your significant other.''

''Argh, thanks Wendy!''

''No problem sweetie.'', the raven haired beauty smiled, getting up from the bench and swinging her sports bag over her shoulder. ''Anyway, I have to go and find the girls, just in case they might need an additional helping hand with putting up decorations and other crap for the Homecoming week.''

''See you around!'', Tweek said, offering a small wave to the ravenette girl.

Making her way further down the main hallway of the school, Wendy spotted Red, Nichole and Millie hanging decorative flowers and ribbons all over the walls of the main corridor. The three girls had been one of the several Sophomore students that decided to help out the Junior students with setting up the decorations and glittering up the usually boring and depressingly dull hallways of South Park High School.

''Hey girls!'', Wendy chirped happily, approaching her oldest girl friends.

Red turned around on the spot, smiling at her dark haired friend. ''Oh hey Wends. What's up?''

''Nothing too special, I was just done with my volleyball practice. What's up with you guys?''

''Well, some Junior students asked us if we would like to help them with decorating the school and as you can tell, they are _totally_ helping us.'', Nichole chimed in, rolling her eyes exasperatedly and pointing over to the group of five or more Junior students being totally caught up in their conversation and not interested at all in helping their younger peers with the decorating tasks.

''Yeah, I _can_ tell.'', Wendy responded back sarcastically. ''Do you guys maybe need an extra help?''

Millie smiled sweetly at her friend, before politely shaking her head 'no'. ''No Wends, you really don't have to. And besides, we are nearly done decorating and only need to put up a few more streamers.''

''So…'', Red began, curling one piece of glittery paper around the scissors to create the streamer. ''Are you guys going with _anyone_ to the Homecoming dance?''

"Isn't it a bit too early to start talking about the Homecoming?", Wendy replied, placing one hand on her left hip.

''Not _really_ , because the dance is _only_ week and a half away. I think it's pretty normal to talk about who are we going with to the Homecoming, what are we going to wear and all the other things.'', Millie argued, pinning one final poster on the bulletin board.

"I'm definitely going with Token, but he hasn't asked me about going with him to the dance _yet_. I mean, it was never doubtful that he's going to be my date for the Homecoming.", Nichole explained. ''Red, are you going solo this year or did you manage to get a date as well?''

''Well…'', the vibrant haired girl began. ''I'll probably be dateless. I don't care too much about it, to be completely honest.''

"Mills, what about you?"

The strawberry blonde girl bit down on her lip teasingly, trying to subside the sudden urge to let out an exciting squeal. "I'm going with Clyde. He asked me if I wanted to be his date to the dance and obviously, I just couldn't say no!"

Excited smiles were instantly plastered across the faces of the other three girls, but definitely none of them could match the one Millie had on her face.

"Really? That's awesome Millie! I know Clyde's had a thing for you for quite some time now."

''Yeah, I _actually_ thought he wouldn't even come close to me in a six foot radius. Also, I thought that he still had a thing for Bebe, so you can _only_ imagine how surprised I was when he asked me to come with him to the dance.''

''I think you _really_ don't have to worry about Clyde still drooling over Bebe.'', Wendy explained. ''I guess that he realized that his chances of ever getting back together with her were over when she became interested in Kyle again.''

"Wends, what about you? Who are you going with?", Red spoke, raising a curious eyebrow at Wendy.

The raven haired beauty snorted sarcastically to herself, folding her arms across her chest. "With no one, _just_ like last year."

Swapping a curious glance with both Nichole and Millie, the red haired teenage girl replied. ''Really?''

''Yeah, it's not like I'm really interested into having a date anyway. Last year I also went without a date and had a total blast.''

''That's interesting, because we were kinda' expecting Stan to invite you to go with him, since you have apparently been friends again for a while now.''

''Look, Stan and I are _just_ friends.'', Wendy's response was immediate. ''However, if he _does_ actually ask me to go with him to the Homecoming dance, I'm _not_ gonna' be an asshole and say no. We've been on good terms for quite some time now and I really don't want to mess it up.''

At the end of the day, Stan and Wendy were just friends. And nothing more than that.

Just friends.

_Right?_

* * *

''Do you have _any_ idea from where we could start writing our assignment?'', Stan scratched the back of his neck irritably, slouching himself down in his seat.

''Not _really_. I guess I probably should've picked out something else for us to write about, rather than the topic about goddamned hormones.'', Wendy replied back, crossing her arms across her chest.

For the past twenty five minutes or so, the two raven haired teenagers had been sitting at the dining table in Wendy's living room and were trying to come up with the ideal way of how to start their Biology assignment. Their respective Biology textbooks and notebooks were laying open on the table, as well as Wendy's laptop that she had brought along with her from her bedroom.

But neither Stan nor Wendy could actually think about the proper way of how to start writing the topic of their Biology assignment.

''You know what, I'm gonna' use Wikipedia as a starting point. Just so that we can have some sort of an outline for the assignment.'', the dark haired boy said, before reaching forward for Wendy's laptop and placing it in front of him.

''Stan, Wikipedia isn't _exactly_ the most reliable resource, since it's an open source type of website and _anyone_ can do changes on the articles and mess with the information they contain.'', Wendy replied to her ex-boyfriend. ''Didn't you listen to Mrs. Harvey when she was talking about using various resources other than just Wikipedia and WikiHow?''

''I might have zoned out at that part, though.'', Stan shrugged his shoulders in defense. ''I just don't see the problem with using Wikipedia for the starting points and then using some other scientific website for the most important information, as well as for the nitty-gritty details.''

''Well, we could _._ ''

''I'm just saying that's how I usually try to do these assignments – I use Wikipedia for the starting points and then collect information from other websites.'', the raven haired teenage boy explained further.

''Yeah, yeah. It _actually_ sounds very good.'', Wendy commented. ''She also said that we have to list all the resources we are going to use for writing the assignment.''

''So, we only have to write about the hormones and how they affect the human body?''

''Well, _that_ is what Mrs. Harvey suggested at first.'', Wendy began. ''After we made the rough outline for our assignment, I actually did a few minor changes to it and asked our professor if we could instead write about something slightly different, but still stick to the main topic of our assignment.''

''And what's different compared to the topic she suggested we write about?''

''Well, we are still going to do the introductory part about hormones – what they are, what's their role in human body and the main groups of hormones. But, we're specifically going to focus on the 'happy' hormones, aka serotonine, dopamine, endorphine and oxytocin.''

''Good.'', Stan smiled at his ex-girlfriend. ''I guess we can _finally_ start from somewhere.''

''Yeah, we can even do a breakdown for all the titles and subtitles. At least we now have _some_ sort of a starting point for the assignment.''

Swapping a gentle smirk with each other, Stan and Wendy finally decided to start working together on their assignment.

The raven haired girl opened the Microsoft Word app on her laptop, while Stan wrote down a short summary for their assignment and created the table of content. They both agreed on using Wikipedia for collecting the basic information about hormones and decided to write at least one page of their assignment that day.

''How many pages do you think we should write?'', Stan asked his ex-girlfriend, keeping his eyes glued onto Wendy's laptop.

''Honestly, I don't know. Mrs. Harvey didn't give us an exact number of pages we have to write, but as far as I can tell, twelve to fifteen pages should be more than enough.''

''Good, if you say so.'', the raven haired teenager smirked.

Mirroring the smirk her ex-boyfriend had plastered on his face, Wendy snorted teasingly to herself. ''If I say s-''

''Yeah, I do trust you when you say that fifteen pages will be enough to write. I mean, I wouldn't write more than ten or twelve pages.''

Chuckling to herself, Wendy shook her head slightly. ''Since when are you so interested in Biology?''

''Who says I am?'', Stan argued.

''I don't know. Do you have an A from Biology?''

''I don't have to be interested in a certain subject to excell at it, Wendy.'', the teenage boy heaved his shoulders up and down, before giving his ex-girlfriend a small, genuine smirk.

''Well, I guess that's kinda' true.''

''It is true, Testaburger.'', Stan sniped teasingly.

''Zip it Marsh.'', Wendy smirked cheekily at her ex-boyfriend. ''Now come on, we have to finish the last part of the first page!''

Both raven haired teenagers chuckled to themselves. They had been surprised by how well they were still in tune with each other, especially when taking into consideration everything that had happened between them over the past year and a half.

''Are you excited about the Homecoming week?'', Stan blurted out, not being quite aware of what he had just said.

''Well, I actually am. We have the game against the Evergreen Eagles on Wednesday and we've been training very, _very_ hard for it.''

''Good, but do you think you can beat that team? I've heard that their winning streak has been very good.''

''Our winning streak is twenty five compared to their nineteen. I think it's _pretty_ obvious who has the advantage and which team is better.'', Wendy smirked, before one interesting thought suddenly sprang into the forefront of her mind. ''Since when are you so invested in volleyball?''

''Who says I'm interested?'', Stan's retorted immediately. ''Okay, if you really wanna' know – Bebe's been asking Kyle to come and watch you guys play on Wednesday, but he's more likely gonna' ask me and Kenny to tag along with him since we haven't had that much time to hang out together over the past few weeks.''

''Oh, okay then.'', Wendy shrugged her shoulders in response, as another thought hopped into her mind. ''I _still_ remember how you said that making jokes is actually harder and requires more skill than playing girls volleyball.''

''Well, my opinion on the girls volleyball might have changed over the years, but I still don't think it is as exciting as football.''

''Speaking of football, you're going to play as quarterback on the starting team this year?''

''Yeah, fucking _finally_! I honestly can't wait for guys and me to get out on the field next Thursday and hammer the Middle Park Cowboys. After playing as a substitute the whole Freshman year, this will be much more challenging, but I'm not going to complain about it.''

''What about Scott Gaffrey, school's former main quarterback?''

''Well, he's still in the process of recovering. However, I'm sure he's going to switch positions and play as a fullback once he returns to the team. Also, he said that he has absolutely nothing against me playing as the main quarterback and gave me his full support.'', Stan explained. ''I know the way that I was promoted on the starting team wasn't exactly the most meritable, but hey, I couldn't care less about it.'', he continued further. ''When you get a chance to finally show off all of your football talent, you don't want it to slip away that easily.''

''Fingers crossed that you guys beat the Middle Park. I know I'll be cheering for you guys anyway.''

Cocking a curious eyebrow at his raven haired friend, Stan chuckled. ''You're back on the cheer squad?''

''Yeah.'', Wendy confirmed. ''It's been a bit tough to balance it all out with volleyball and being in the student body council, but I'm doing just fine.''

''Well, you have always had many extracurricular activities. You are one person that I'm not doubting about being able to balance between their extracurricular activities and excelling in school.''

Trying her damnedest not to allow the blush to creep across her cheeks, Wendy smiled sweetly at Stan. ''Thanks, I suppose?''

''My pleasure.''

* * *

The Homecoming week couldn't have rolled around faster.

Perhaps the three most excitable events set to happen that week were the volleyball match between the South Park Cows and the Evergreen Eagles on Wednesday, the Homecoming football game between South Park Cows and Middle Park Cowboys on Thursday, and a cherry on top, the Homecoming dance on Friday night.

Of course, no sporting events, school plays or art exhibits could've been on par with the Homecoming dance in terms of excitement amongst the students. As well as in the terms of sheer annoyance for the janitors to clean up the whole mess afterwards.

It was Wednesday evening now, and the much anticipated game between the South Park Cows and the Evergreen Eagles was about to commence.

The two volleyball teams had always had a fierce, but friendly rivarly. And although the nature of the Homecoming game wasn't as competitive as the usual games between the Cows and the Eagles, both teams had still been quite eager to achieve a win.

After a warm welcome to the guest team, the national anthem being played and the team plannings on both sides of the volleyball court, the game was ready to finally begin. Instead of the coin being tossed to determine which team would get the first serve, South Park instead let the guest team have the first serve.

The first set was easily won by the home team after the girls managed to hammer the Eagles 25 – 12, effectively using all of thei latter's serving and passing mistakes to gain a pretty comfortable lead. However, by the time the third set had rolled around, the Evegreen Eagles managed to catch up on the South Park Cows by winning the second set after using the home team's defense mishaps to their advantage.

But of course, the home team won the next two sets with a significant margin and achieved the victory by beating the Evergreen Eagles 3 – 1 on the scoresheet.

As the whistle blew for the end of the Homecoming game, all of the South Park Cows players hurdled together into a group hug and cheered loudly. Winning the Homecoming game was only an incentive for the girls to improve their game play even further and to continue their incredible winning streak.

Kyle, Stan and Kenny were amongst the many supporters who had showed up to give their support to the girls and cheer loudly for them.

''Dude, the girls are freaking awesome!'', Kyle spoke eagerly.

''Yeah! Have you seen how smoking hot their butts look in those volleyball shorts?'', Kenny replied in his usual, perverted tone, causing both Kyle and Stan to groan out in unison. He had spoken more clearly since getting rid of his dingy orange parka and swapping it for something that wouldn't muffle his speech anymore.

''Do you _always_ have to think with your dick?'', Stan said, shaking his head in disbelief.

''Of course!'', Kenny smirked cheekily. ''Don't pretend like you didn't look at Wendy's butt at least once, especially when she was squatting down to prepare the serve.''

Slightly taken aback by Kenny's bluntess, Stan could only pinch the bridge of his nose nervously and let out a groan. ''Of course I didn't look at her butt, you idiot. I only came here because Kyle wanted you and me to hang out together a bit.''

''It has nothing to do with Wendy, goddamit.''

''Look Stan, I might not be an expert when it comes to long-term relationships or _any_ type of romantic relationship for that matter, but I sure as hell do know that there is still that teeny tiny piece of you that likes Wendy.'', Kenny said, sporting a smug smile on his face. ''Yeah, you guys might be on friendly terms right now, but knows what will happen between you two in the future.''

''We are just friends, okay?'', Stan replied back sternly, not wanting to listen to any one of Kenny's obviously crazy insinuations about the two raven haired teenagers and the state of their friendship.

The three teenage boys eventually made their way down to the volleyball court to congratulate the girls for winning their game.

Kyle immediately pulled Bebe into a hug and spun her around on the spot, kissing the blonde beauty gently over and over, never wanting to let go of her. Kenny's attempts at peeking at the butts of the various South Park and Evergreen volleyball players turned out to be surprisingly successful, as he even managed to get a few good shots of them with his phone before inevitably earning a slap or two from both Jenny and Esther.

Stan zipped over to Wendy and gently tapped her on the shoulder, instantly catching her attention. She spun around on the spot and felt her heart flutter slightly at the sight of Stan standing opposite of her.

''Hey.'', he spoke gently. ''Congrats for the win.''

''Thanks, the game wasn't as tough as we first anticipated it would be.'', Wendy admitted, locking her eyes with Stan's beautiful blue eyes. ''And thank you for _actually_ coming to the girls volleyball game.''

''Well, you have got to thank Kyle and Kenny for dragging me come with them.''

''Will do.''

After a few moments of slightly awkward silence, Stan cleared his throat and offered his ex-girlfriend a small, sincere smirk. ''The last serve was really, _really_ good.''

''Oh, thanks. I mean, I've been practicing with all types of serves for this game and it was crucial to master all of them. Because in the volleyball game, you simply can't use just one type of serve.'', Wendy smirked at her ex-boyfriend.

Nodding his head in agreement, Stan could only smirk back at her.

But suddenly, one slightly nerve-wracking idea thudded at the forefront of the raven haired boy's mind. He immediately began feeling a bit more nervous than before, thinking of the proper way of how to word his idea. He was kinda' expecting Wendy to react strangely to his proposition, but he couldn't have known her reaction without asking her first, obviously.

_Ask her if she wants to go with you to the Homecoming dance, you idiot!_

"Hey Wendy...", Stan began nervously, shoving his hands inside the pocket of his dark gray hoodie. "Do you maybe want to go with me to the Homecoming dance?"

Wendy immediately went silent. She couldn't exactly muster the proper response right away, but when she decided to go along with what her heart had been telling her, the dark haired girl wasn't even going to attempt to deny it.

"Actually…", Wendy smiled softly at her ravenette friend and took a step closer to him. "I wouldn't mind it at all."

''Good.'', he smiled at her gently.

Wendy stood on her tip toes and shyly wrapped her arms around Stan's tall figure, pulling him into a small, but friendly hug. She felt her ex-boyfriend hugging her back in the same manner, making her heart absolutely flutter in her chest.

Although both Stan and Wendy weren't willing to admit it, it felt strangely good to be in each other's arms after such a long time.

And there was even one more thought that both of them could have mutually agreed on.

_This can't go any further, right?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, another chapter down and six more to go!
> 
> I actually had to rewrite about two-thirds of this chapter, because I made a dumb mistake of not backing it up on my OneDrive account and lost nearly three thousand words in the process. I honestly wanted to smack myself in the head for not having an additional backup, but whatever. I would usually write all of my fanfics on Doc Manager, but definitely not after this fuckup!
> 
> I thoroughly enjoyed writing the volleyball game part, although it was ridiculously hard to do. I swear that I spent like two hours on the Wikipedia page reading about the basic rules of volleyball and how it is supposed to be played. And I think that speaks volumes about how much dedication I pay towards those tiny details that really make the story better all-together.
> 
> And it is more fluffiness for Stan and Wendy in this chapter. It's getting very obvious that the two of them are still slightly attracted to each other, but continue to vehemently deny it. The Homecoming dance should be very interesting, to say the least.
> 
> As per usual, thanks to each and every one of you that takes the time out of their day to read this story, as well as my other works. Your reviews, follows and favorites are the reasons that keep on pushing me to go ahead with this story and to make it better with each new chapter. :)
> 
> Until next time,
> 
> \- xoxo, whisperinthemoonlight. ❤


	5. [come and get it]

After the celebration of girl's volleyball team win and going to McDonald's with Kyle, Kenny, Bebe and Wendy, Stan was pacing down the sidewalk towards his house in an attempt to get the hell out of brisk October weather. He shoved his hands inside the pockets of his jacket, trying to keep himself sufficiently warm.

The raven haired teenage boy still couldn't shake off the giddy smile off his face, mostly due to the fact that his ex-girlfriend Wendy happily obliged to his offer to be his plus one to the Homecoming dance, without making things between them unnecessarily awkward. If a little bit of dancing and having fun with his ravenette counterpart would contribute to making their friendship stronger, then Stan sure as hell didn't have any reason to complain about it.

As he moved closer to his house, an apprehensive feeling swept over Stan.

Noticing that the light in the living room had still been turned on, the dark haired quarterback swallowed down a nervous lump in his throat. Tentatively, he fished out his phone from the pocket of his black jacket and unlocked it. His bright blue eyes widened in surprise as he realized that it was ten-thirty PM now, just half an hour over his curfew.

Groaning out annoyingly, Stan locked his phone again and walked up to the front door of the dark green house. He twisted the door knob and slowly pushed the door open, stepping inside of his house and noticing that his mother Sharon was present in the living room.

The older brunette woman was laying down on the couch and watched TV, but she instantly cocked her head towards the front door upon noticing that her youngest child had finally decided to come home. The look of displeasure sitting firmly on Sharon's face hadn't made Stan feel any less worried about his mother potentially losing her shit over him coming home later than he was supposed to.

''Stanley Marsh!'', Sharon's agitated voice thundered through the living room of the Marsh residence. ''What makes you think that coming home later than you were supposed to is an acceptable behaviour?''

''Sorry, mom.'', Stan replied back, raising his hands up in defense and trying to come up with a good explanation fast. ''I went to McDonalds with my friends and got caught up in a conversation with them. I must've forgotten about the fact that I was supposed to be home by ten.''

Her son's explanation made Sharon soften her annoyed facial expression, but she still hadn't felt any less ticked off by the fact that Stan forgot about his curfew and the fact that he had a big Homecoming game the next day, so her son getting a good night's sleep felt like a _must_ to the older brunette woman.

''Fine then. I am going to let you off the hook _this_ time, but just make sure that it doesn't happen anymore, okay?''

''Okay mom.'', Stan confirmed with a sole nod of his head, smiling affectionately at his mother. The dark haired teenager shrugged out of his jacket and threw it over the arm chair, plopping down on the couch next to his mother.

''So, how was the game?'', Sharon spoke up again.

''Oh, it was pretty damn good. The girls _really_ hammered the Evergreen Eagles.''

''Really? That's good.'', the older woman replied, smiling at her youngest child. ''Do you think you guys can do the same thing to Middle Park tomorrow?''

A cheeky smirk wriggled across Stan's face. ''I'm hoping we actually do! This is gonna' be my very first game playing as the main quarterback on the starting team and I'm for sure going to give it my best.''

''Considering the fact that the South Park Cows have been consistently beating Middle Park in the Homecoming games, I wouldn't be surprised at all if you guys win with a big spread tomorrow. _Don't_ ask me how I know all these things.'', Sharon rolled her eyes, reminding herself about all the football games she had been dragged to over the years by her husband.

''That is part of the plan, mom.''

''Good…'', Sharon responded. ''So, what about the Homecoming dance on Friday? Are you going with anyone?''

''As a matter-of-factly, I wanted to talk to you about it.'', Stan replied to his mother. ''I'm actually going with someone.''

''Ooh…'', Sharon cooed to herself, making the teenage boy roll his bright blue eyes at his mother's snickering. ''Who's the lucky girl?''

''Well, I'm going with Wendy.''

''Wendy? Your ex-girlfriend?'', Sharon's eyes widened in pleasant surprise.

''Yeah.'', Stan confirmed.

''Since when are you guys back on speaking terms? I don't really remember you talking too much about her ever since you guys broke up.''

''Well, we have _never_ technically stopped talking to each other, but there was just one period where we weren't talking at all. It wasn't until the end of our Freshman year when we decided to be friendly with one another again, and we have been able to do that ever since. We are also working together on a project for our Biology class.'', Stan explained, intentionally glossing over the _true_ reason why he and Wendy weren't on speaking terms for a few months.

''That's good Stan. I know Wendy's always been a very nice and polite girl.''

''Well, what can I tell you? She hasn't changed ever since I first spoke to her back in the third grade.'', Stan smiled and heaved his shoulders up, before turning his head in the direction of TV.

After a couple minutes of silence, a slightly peculiar thought popped into Sharon's mind. She licked her lips tentatively, before going ahead and expressing her thought out to her youngest child.

''Stanley…'', Sharon began, gaining her son's attention. ''Do you maybe think that you and Wendy can get back tog-''

''No mom, please'', Stan's response was immediate. He chuckled, before shaking his head in slight disbelief. ''I _don't_ think we will. And besides, I'm fine with the way things are between us.''

''Oh, okay then…''

A few minutes later, Stan finally decided it was the time to hit the bed. He dashed upstairs into his bedroom, got out of his old clothes and grabbed a fresh pair of underwear and a clean t-shirt before taking a shower. After he was done with getting ready for bed, he plonked himself down on his bed and sighed out contently.

For a couple of minutes, the raven haired teenager was simply laying there, thinking about everything that had happened in his life over the past few months.

From getting together with Lola and breaking up with her not even four months later, to suddenly being promoted to play on the starting team after Scott's horrendous injury, to becoming friends with Wendy again and them subsequently growing closer to each other again over the course of few months.

All of those thoughts had been playing inside of Stan's mind, but none of them could compete with what Kenny had said to him about the state of his friendship with Wendy at the volleyball game.

_''Look Stan, I might not be an expert when it comes to long-term relationships or **any** type of romantic relationship for that matter, but I sure as hell do know that there is still that teeny tiny piece of you that likes Wendy.'', Kenny said, sporting a smug smile on his face. ''Yeah, you guys might be on friendly terms right now, but knows what will happen between you two in the future.''_

_''We are just friends, okay?'', Stan replied back sternly, not wanting to listen to any one of Kenny's obviously crazy insinuations about the two raven haired teenagers and the state of their friendship._

Gazing up at his bedroom ceiling, Stan clapped his eyes shut and let out a faint sigh once again. He snuggled comfortably underneath his covers and rolled over onto the other side in an attempt to finally fall asleep after a long day.

However, Stan's mind had still been getting cluttered with all sorts of peculiar thoughts and ideas, with one particular thought tugging at his heartstrings.

_What if Kenny actually wasn't wrong when he said that a small piece of him still liked Wendy?_

Because no matter how much he attempted to deny his friend's assumption, Stan had been finding it harder and harder to believe the _exact_ opposite.

* * *

It was Thursday now, marking the penultimate day of the Homecoming week that was slowly, but surely coming to its end.

Thankfully, the school actually allowed their students to go home a little bit earlier than usual, in order to get everyone ready for the upcoming Homecoming football game, as well as for the pre-game build up consisting of a marching band and pep rally that would be led by the school's cheerleading squad.

After the South Park Cows volleyball team smashed the Evergreen Eagles on Wednesday, everyone had been having sort of the same expectations for the football team and their own Homecoming game against the Middle Park Cowboys.

About hour and a half before the start of the football game, the pep rally was in full swing inside the school's gymnasium.

Hundreds upon hundreds of students were sitting inside of the gymnasium, thoroughly enjoying the pep rally and waiting for the football game to commence. A lot of students were dressed in dark green, black and white clothes, proudly wearing their high school's colors and other football-related merchandise.

Down on the court, the cheerleaders were doing their absolute best to pump up the crowd for the upcoming football game, while the marching band was playing various songs in the background.

The noisy, electrifying crowd was suddenly sent into the full-on excitement mode as the South Park Cows' football team coach and the entire football team walked inside of the gymnasium. They were welcomed with a thundering applause, elevating the levels of exuberance even more.

The South Park Cows football coach, Mr. Franklin, was a man in his early fifties. He was of an average height, and although he was slowly approaching the sixth decade of his life, he was still in a surprisingly fit and good shape for a man of his age. He had been training the South Park Cows for nearly fifteen years and had won thirteen titles along the way, out of which four of them were the state titles.

''Good evening everyone! Welcome to the annual Homecoming game of our football team.'', Coach Franklin spoke eagerly, before the crowd applauded loudly once again.

He raised his hand up as a sign for the crowd to get silent again, before he continued. ''As I'm sure that a lot of you know, our previous football season was full of ups and downs. We started the season on a _very_ high note and won nearly all of our games in the first part of the season. Unfortunately, as the second part of the season came around and our opponents were getting tougher with each new game, Scott Gaffrey, one of our most promising and important football players, suffered a terrible knee injury that has unfortunately made him not being able to play football for at least six months.''

''Although all of us were primarily worried about Scott's well-being, we also had one very important goal to reach – to win the Park County football championship for the third year in a row. Thankfully, we were able to do that, and I'm hoping that this year we will be able to repeat our success for the fourth consecutive time! Go South Park Cows!''

Another loud, boisterous applause roared through the audience, before they went silent once again at the Coach Franklin's sign.

''Thanks to the efforts of our entire football team, we were able to beat our last year's winning streak. But, one particular young man especially proved his talent and football skills when he stepped up to play on Scott's position, thus earning him the title of the MVP in the Park County football championship! Please put your hands up your new captain and quarterback, Stanley Marsh!'', the older man said with a proud smile on his face, pointing towards the raven haired teenage boy.

With the crowd going wild once again, Stan grinned from ear to ear before walking up to his coach and taking the microphone from him. He then cleared his throat and parted his lips to speak a few moments later. ''Hello everyone! How are we feeling tonight?''

The cheerful crowd could only respond back with another round of applauding, before Stan raised his hand up in an attempt to silence the audience once again.

Members of the cheerleading squad were standing on one side of the gym court, excitedly waving their pom poms in the air and adding just a little bit more fun into the already flamboyant atmosphere.

Wendy was also amongst the cheerleaders that were doing a fine of job of pumping up the crowd for the upcoming football game. She felt her heart skip a tender beat as she watched her ex-boyfriend Stan giving his speech enthusiastically.

''So, like our coach mentioned a few moments ago, the last season was full of ups and downs, but that wasn't going to stop us from winning the title. And I can only tell you that _nothing_ is going to stop us from winning the another title! We are going to use this Homecoming game as a little sneak peek into what you can expect from us this year – wins and more exciting football matches! Go Cows, go!'', Stan finished his speech, making the crowd erupt into another loud, thunderous applause.

''We are South Park, Green, Black and White. Let's go, Cows! Fight, fight, fight! Nobody can beat a Cow! Let's go South Park!'', the cheerleading squad chanted happily, with all of the cheerleaders waving their pom poms around and dancing together in a synchronized fashion.

* * *

The South Park Cows football stadium was filled to the brink with spectators, who were eagerly waiting for the annual Homecoming football game to begin. The majority of spectators were the students and family members of the football players, South Park citizens that decided to show up to the game as well, and a small number of the Middle Park Cowboys' supporters that were completely surrounded by the home team's fans.

''Something tells me that we are going to smash these motherfuckers _really_ hard.'', Stan said eagerly, running his fingers through his messy raven black hair, before putting on his dark green football helmet and catching up with his teammates, who were eager to get out of the boys' locker room and jog out on the football field.

The two teams eventually made their way over to the football field and after the national anthem was played, the players exchanged friendly handshakes with each other before setting up their formations on the opposing parts of the football field in order to start the game.

As the whistle blew for the beginning of the game, Stan took in a deep breath and shouted out.

''Hut, hut, hut!''

Almost instantly, the South Park Cows were pretty adamant towards showing the guest team that they weren't going to have _any_ mercy on them and that they would be hammered with a significant margin.

The first quarter ended with the South Park Cows already scoring two touchdowns and being able to block out any of the Middle Park defense players sprinting towards Clyde, who played as a wide receiver. Stan had been doing quite a fine job of passing the football over the line to the brunette teenage boy, making the spectators erupt into a boisterous bunch whenever the ball was played properly and without a single defensive mishap from the home team.

And the second quarter wasn't any less intense, although the guest team was _finally_ able to score a touchdown of their own, giving them at least a glimmer of hope when it came to turning the game around in their favor.

As the half time began, Stan pulled off his helmet and ran his fingers through his messy locks. He made his way across the football field to his team's bench, plopping down on the sideline as he finally approached his teammates, who were equally exhausted as the raven haired quarterback.

Reaching for the water bottle that was placed beside the cooler, Stan opened it swiftly and chugged down most of the refreshing liquid, feeling slightly more rejuvenated after giving his best in the first two intense quarters of the game.

The dark haired teenager breathed out heavily, before snapping his head up as he heard Coach Franklin call him out.

''Excellent job Marsh!'', the older man spoke, patting the captain of the football team on his shoulder and making him smile proudly.

''Thanks coach.''

Cocking his head towards the grandstands, Stan spotted the cheerleading squad doing their usual excitement routine and waving their pom poms in the air. The girls were still having a shit ton of energy, considering the fact that they were on their feet throughout the entirety of pep rally and through the significant portion of the first two quarters.

The raven haired quarterback felt his smile forming wide as he spotted Wendy sitting on the grassy field, with her pom poms laying beside her.

She looked absolutely stunning in a dark green, black and white cheerleading outfit. Her long black hair was tied up in a ponytail sitting on top of her head and she was proudly bouncing around her dark green pom poms.

The teenage girl was laughing her ears off with the rest of the cheerleaders, until she noticed Stan looking in her direction and offered him a small wave, mirroring the affectionate smile he had on his face.

Stan closed his eyes tightly, before letting out a faint groan and allowing his thoughts to momentarily drift away somewhere else from football.

_''Stan!''_

_The raven haired quarterback turned around on the spot, as he noticed his beautiful girlfriend approaching him with quite the haste._

_''Congrats for the win! I'm so proud of you.'', Wendy said with a triumphant smile on her face, before Stan beamed down at her and tugged her gently into his strong, warm embrace._

_Wendy instantly nuzzled her nose into her boyfriend's strong chest, as she stood up on her tip-toes and craned her neck upwards to delicately meet her lips with Stan's. She wrapped both of her arms around his neck, while the quarterback lowered himself just a little bit and clutched both arms around his girlfriend's thighs to hoist her up into the air._

_They both smiled happily into their kisses, never wanting to stop their sweet exchange._

_Reluctantly parting away from him, Wendy nuzzled her head back into Stan's chest and lovingly mumbled to him. ''I love you **so** much.''_

_''I love you too babe.'', Stan gently kissed the very top of Wendy's head, smiling down at her once again._

''Stan, dude!''

As Stan was unwillingly snapped out of his daydream, he turned around on the spot towards his teammates. But, much to the raven haired quarterback's surprise, his ex-girlfriend wasn't standing right opposite of him. He turned over his shoulder to see Kenny signalling for him to get up and to jog back to the football field for the start of the last two quarters.

Shaking the sudden image of his ex-girlfriend out of his head, Stan brushed up the dirt from his football uniform and pulled his helmet on his head, getting up from the ground and pacing back to join his teammates.

The two teams were now playing on the different sides of the football field, contrary to where they played during the first two quarters of the game.

The final two quarters were going on in pretty much the same fashion as the previous two did – the domination of the home team and an occasional chance to score a touchdown or an extra haul of points for the Middle Park Cowboys.

With Clyde receiving the final pass from their quarterback, he ran as fast as he could to score the final touchdown and to add the additional six points for the South Park Cows' already good scoresheet. The final result ended up being 38 – 18 for the home team.

Loud, thunderous cheers erupted all throughout the grandstands, while the home team footballers hurdled together to celebrate their dominance over the Middle Park and their Homecoming game win for only-God-knew which year in a row.

All of Stan's teammates gave him proud pats on the back and collectivelly collapsed on top of him in a fleeting moment of celebration. The teenage boy simply couldn't wipe off the proud smirk from his face, as he swapped high-fives with the rest of his teammates, coach Franklin and the rest of the school faculty.

But of course, Stan felt his heart pitter-patter in his chest as he spotted Wendy making her way over to him. She was sporting a small smirk on her face, but the raven haired quarterback could also see a glisten form in her chocolate brown eyes as she was approaching him.

''Hey.'', Stan said.

''Hey you.'', Wendy responded immediately, placing one hand on her right hip. ''Just wanted to come over here to tell you something that you've been probably hearing for the past ten minutes or so, but congratulations for the hammering the Middle Park!''

Chuckling at the apparent wit in his ex-girlfriend's voice, Stan couldn't help himself but grin at the ravenette girl standing opposite of him. ''Thanks! You were also doing a pretty good with lifting everyone's spirits today.''

''Well, that _only_ reminded of how much I actually missed cheerleading throughout the Freshman year. It felt good to be yelling on top of my lungs and supporting the football team once again.''

''Hehe, good.''

''So…'', Wendy began awkwardly. ''Are we _still_ on for the Homecoming dance?''

Stan nodded his head in response, smiling as he pulled his helmet off his head and tucked it safely underneath his arm. ''Yeah, of course. Will six-thirty PM be okay with you?''

''Sure! We can meet up in front of the gym. If you want to, of course'.''

''Sounds good to me. You can send me a message in case anything changes.''

''Well…'', Wendy rolled her eyes. ''Since Bebe's coming over to my house to get ready, I suppose she might put in the extra effort to look her best. You know that she's extra fussy when it comes to her hair and makeup.''

Shaking his head slightly in disbelief, Stan smiled once again at his dark haired friend. ''So, I will see you tomorrow Wends?''

''Sure, see you.''

Swapping a gentle smile with her ex-boyfriend again, Wendy finally turned around on the spot and began to make her way towards where the rest of the cheerleading squad had still been sitting.

The teenage girl could feel her heart pounding rapidly against her ribcage, but what had been slightly different this time was the fact that she wasn't even attempting to deny that Stan was the real reason why her heart was beating whenever she had locked her vision with his or talked to him.

Whether the teenage girl wanted to admit it or not, the struggle of trying _not_ to fall for Stan again had seemed more and more difficult with each passing day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, would you look at that – a new update after only six days!
> 
> This chapter is slightly shorter than usual, since I came to the realization that writing a chapter about the pre-game build up and the football game, Homecoming party and the afterparty would be nearly nine thousand words in total, which is simply way too much for me to give you guys in a single chapter.
> 
> You can also consider this chapter to be sort of a filler one, since things will get spicier in the following chapters. ;)
> 
> I seriously hope I didn't mess up the football game part too much, since I have a pretty weak knowledge about the American football. I've always watched the association football more, or what you folks in the North America and Australia/Oceania call soccer. Anyway, you do learn something new every single day.
> 
> Until next time,
> 
> \- xoxo, whisperinthemoonlight. ❤


	6. [captivated]

It was finally Friday now, and the culmination of the annual Homecoming week in South Park High School couldn't have rolled around faster.

The exciting Homecoming week had been marked by two big games of the school's volleyball and football teams, as well as by many different school plays and art exhibits taking place inside the school's theater.

But of course, none of the events were able to make the students feel as excited as the Homecoming dance that was set to happen on Friday evening.

The South Park High School staff members were kind enough not to hold the last two periods of that day and to let their students go home a little bit earlier than usual, in order for the exuberant teenagers to get ready and look their absolute best for the Homecoming dance.

And just like the rest of their high school colleagues, the long-time best friend duo of Wendy Testaburger and Bebe Stevens hadn't been feeling any less abuzz about going to the Homecoming dance.

After they were done with school for the week, the two teenage girls decided to make a quick stop to Wallgreens and Ulta in the South Park Mall to buy a few more makeup items they needed for their makeovers, grabbed something quick to eat in KFC and made a direct beeline for the Testaburger residence.

While Wendy's room had been squeaky clean at the beginning, it quickly became cluttered with makeup products and skincare sitting all over the raven haired girl's computer desk and nightstand. Flat iron and two curling wands had been placed in one corner of the room and were ready to get heated up, while Bebe managed to take up most of the space on her best friend's vanity with her makeup brush roll.

After the two best friends were done with doing their pre-makeup skincare routines, the raven haired girl decided to occupy the bathroom and grabbed all of her makeup items to get herself ready for the dance, while Bebe decided to make the most out of using her best friend's makeup vanity.

Of course, Wendy had never been the type of girl to fuss _too_ much about her looks. On the flip side, her best friend Bebe was always the complete one-eighty and would purposely put in the extra effort when it came to her makeup and keeping her golden curls in check.

''Thank fuck that I managed to book an appointment in time to get my nails done for the dance.'', Bebe muttered to herself excitedly, drumming her shiny red manicured fingertips against Wendy's vanity. She grabbed her MAC Mineralize Skinfinish powder in 'Soft & Gentle' and gently swept it over the highest points of her face using a highlighter brush, adding just a little bit more glow to her already dewy complexion.

The curly blonde's ears perked up at the sound of the bedroom door creaking open, revealing Wendy who had just been done with doing her makeup in the bathroom. The dark haired girl walked inside her bedroom and tossed her makeup bag on the bed, eventually plopping herself down on the comfortable bedspread.

She was about three-quarters done with doing her makeup, and all she was missing were a black liquid eyeliner to add some definition to her eyes, a pair of fake eyelashes and a nice lip color to tie her whole makeup look together.

''Damn Bebe! You're looking like a million dollars.'', Wendy commented, propping herself up on her elbows and scanning the features of her best friend's face.

''Thanks girl! You aren't looking too bad yourself.'', Bebe replied back sweetly, applying the finishing touches to her makeup look. ''Aren't you done with your makeup? Need a helping hand perhaps?''

Getting up from her bed, Wendy simply shook her head 'no' in response. The raven haired girl walked over to her computer desk and grabbed a small hand held mirror. She opened the round compact case and sat down in her desk chair to add the final touches to her makeup look. She shook the liquid eyeliner pen a couple of times and did a quick winged eyeliner on both of her eyelids, applied two coats of mascara on her long lashes and tied the whole look together with a true red, bulletproof liquid lipstick.

Spinning around in her desk chair, Wendy smacked the compact mirror shut and turned towards her best friend. ''What do you think?''

Smirking at the dark haired girl, Bebe raised a cheeky eyebrow and quickly scanned Wendy's face with her emerald green eyes. ''You're looking absolutely stunning Wends. I don't get, _why_ don't you wear makeup more often?''

Smiling sweetly at her best friend, Wendy simply shook her shoulders. ''Well, I prefer to be natural. No offense to you, of course.''

''I get it, don't worry about it.''

''Do you want me to help you with your hair?'', Wendy offered as she got up from her desk chair and walked over to the corner of her room where the hair styling tools had been placed before.

''Well, I was actually planning to ask if you could help me with my hair? I did manage to straighten the front part of my hair, but I've been having a major struggle with doing the back portion.''

''Sure, no problem!'', Wendy chirped, grabbing the flat iron from the floor and turning it on to heat up. She also sprayed some heat protectant onto her best friend's hair, just to make sure that she wouldn't be able to burn Bebe's hair to a crisp.

Once the flat iron had been sufficiently heated up and set on the highest temperature, Wendy separated Bebe's golden locks into smaller portions and went over the strands that had gotten slightly bunched up again. She was raking her best friend's hair with her own fingers in between each pass she had done with the flat iron, slowly turning Bebe's hair into a golden waterfall cascading down her back.

After nearly forty-five minutes, Bebe's hair had been completely straightened. She grabbed the curling wand and styled some of the longer strands of her hair into soft waves, adding an extra 'oompf' to her entire look for the Homecoming dance.

The beautiful blonde then sauntered her way over to Wendy's closet and grabbed her dress that had been hanging on the clothing hanger during the whole process of teenage girl doing her makeup and hair. She stepped out of her comfortable t-shirt and a pair of blue skinny jeans, dumping them on the side and slowly putting on her dress. Once she was done adjusting the dress on her body and fixing any minor issues with the beautiful formal attire, Bebe turned her back to Wendy and signalled to the ravenette girl to help her with zipping up her dress.

Once Wendy was done with zipping Bebe up, she scanned her from head to toe and simply beamed at her. ''Damn girl, I bet Kyle won't be able to get his eyes off you at all!''

The smile had been difficult to get wiped off Bebe's face. She looked gorgeous in a one-shoulder emerald green knee-length dress with a bedazzled tight bodice and a tutu skirt. She wore a pair of nude high-heeled sandals with a thin strap around the ankles and a matching sparkly nude bag.

Turning around on the spot to face her best friend, Bebe noticed that Wendy was still sitting on her bed and was in the process of curling up her hair. ''Well, I'm hoping he won't be able to do that.''

''You aren't going to get dressed or what?'', the blonde girl continued teasingly, noticing that her best friend had still been wearing her regular clothes.

Running her fingertips through her luscious raven locks once more, Wendy turned off the scorching hair styling tool and set it on the floor to cool down. ''Relax girl. I _will_ eventually put on my dress, but I just had to do my hair first.''

Once she was done with doing her hair, Wendy changed from her normal clothes into her dusty pink Homecoming dress and put on her high heeled wedges. She grabbed her crossbody bag and adjusted it over her exposed shoulder, feeling satisfied with her entire look for the Homecoming dance.

''Excited about the dance?'', Bebe asked, before sitting down on her best friend's bed and gaining her attention.

''Sure. I have a feeling it's going to be even better than the last year.'', Wendy replied cheerfully, flattering out the skirt of her dress.

''Ooh.'', Bebe cooed teasingly. ''Does it have to do anything with the fact that you're going with Stan?''

''No?'', Wendy instantly replied, not exactly wanting to indulge herself into the conversation that was about the state of friendship with her ex-boyfriend. ''Of course it doesn't have anything to do with Stan. I simply don't know _why_ I'm having this feeling about the dance being better than last year.''

''Well, we shall see. I'm hoping that all of us have a great time tonight.''

''Same.''

A few moments of blissful silence shared between the two long-time best friends were suddenly interrupted by a soft knock on the door. The two girls swapped a curious glance before Wendy's bedroom door got opened, revealing an older raven haired woman standing in the doorway.

Peering her head inside her daughter's bedroom, Mrs. Testaburger smiled sweetly at the two teenage girls before eyeing both of them from head to toe. ''Hey girls, you ready to go?''

''Yeah mom.''

Stepping inside her daughter's pink and purple bedroom, Mrs. Testaburger simply couldn't refrain herself from gushing at how stunning the two teenage girls looked. ''Both of you look just so beautiful. I'm willing to bet that both of your dates won't be able to tear their eyes away from you.''

Chuckling to herself, Wendy shook her head slightly in disbelief. ''Mom, stop it.''

''I'm _just_ kidding, hon.'', Mrs. Testaburger replied. ''Come on, you girls don't want to be late for the dance, am I right?''

The two girls eventually made their way downstairs into the living room of the Testaburger residence and went on to take about a dozen selfies before they were told by Mrs. Testaburger that they should _really_ get going. Wendy and Bebe both grabbed their coats and threw them over their shoulders, before walking out of the khaki colored house towards Mrs. Testaburger's car.

During the short car ride with her mother and Bebe to their high school, Wendy was comfortably slouched in the backseat of her mother's car, gazing outside the window and looking at the beautiful October night sky. She was occasionally snapped out of her daydream whenever her mother or Bebe talked to her from the front seats of the car, lifting the raven haired girl's mood up and making her smile whenever they had exchanged a good joke or two.

Once they reached the parking lot of the South Park High School, the two long-time best friends waved goodbye to Mrs. Testaburger and could already feel their moods elevating by leaps and bounds as they approached the main building of the school.

Wendy pulled out her phone from her bag and typed out a quick message to Stan.

_'Hey, we're here. You guys are in the gym or? :)'_

Her phone buzzed not even twenty seconds later, and the teenage girl felt her heart skip a shy beat.

_'Nah, Kyle and I are waiting for you guys in front of the gym. See ya :)'_

Subtly locking her phone and putting it inside her handbag again, Wendy could feel her heart pounding against her ribcage as her and Bebe entered inside the school and began to make their way towards the school's gymnasium.

Although she probably didn't want to admit, Wendy had been actually quite excited about having a little bit of fun and dancing with her good friend/ex-boyfriend.

But, no matter how nice all of those things sounded, one even more prominent thought had been tugging at the raven haired beauty's heartstrings ever since the Homecoming football game.

_Could all of this possibly lead to something more developing between her and Stan again, other than them just being good friends?_

* * *

Glancing down at his phone once again, Stan smiled softly to himself and typed out a quick message to his ex-girlfriend Wendy. Hastily locking the small device, he put it back into the pocket of his suit pants and looked around once again, hoping to catch his ex-girlfriend and her best friend approaching him and _his_ best friend.

Although wearing suits and dressing himself up had never really been one of Stan's favorite things to do, the dark haired quarterback decided to put in at least a little bit more effort after his mother Sharon gave him a few very useful tips of how to look like a dashing young man he had always wanted to be.

For the Homecoming dance, Stan opted to wear a white dress shirt with a black blazer and a pair of black suit pants. A nice touch to his outfit was a pair of suspenders that he was wearing with a matching black bow tie. He ditched his usual red poof ball hat for the evening, allowing his mess of a raven black hair to be exposed.

Glancing over to his auburn haired best friend, Stan couldn't refrain himself from letting out a chuckle upon noticing of how weird Kyle looked without his usual lime green hat. ''Dude, what the fuck happened to your hair?''

Not needing a lot of effort to realize what his best friend was referring to, Kyle rolled his hazel eyes. ''Well, it is a formal occasion, for fuck's sake. I wasn't going to show up to the dance wearing a hat like a fucking dingbat. And besides, Bebe said that I would be going to the dance without a date if I don't ditch my hat and wear my hair down.''

''Well, fair point then.'', the raven haired teenager stated. ''You _really_ do look like a bootleg version of Corbin Bleu with your Jew-fro.''

Cocking a curious eyebrow at his best friend, Kyle tilted his head to the side. ''Who?''

''The dude who played Chad in _High School Musical_?'', Stan said, trying to explain his reference a little bit better.

''Didn't we do a similar thing in the elementary school?'', Kyle asked.

''I think we did. If you remember the dude that the whole school was crazy about – Bridon Gueermo?''

The Jewish teenager nodded his head in response. ''I think I actually do. If I'm not mistaken, he's a Freshman this year because I saw him at the basketball tryouts last month.''

''At what time did you tell Wendy to be here?'', Kyle continued, trying to change the topic of the conversation he was having with his best friend.

''Six-thirty, but Wendy _just_ now texted me that her mom dropped off her and Bebe to school together.''

Completely getting lost in the another hilariously pointless conversation he was having with his best friend, the dark haired teenage boy had failed to hear the double clicking of high heeled shoes coming from two female figures that were approaching a pair of long-time best friends standing in front of the gymnasium's entrance.

''Hey Stan.''

Almost immediately, Stan turned around on the spot upon hearing a very familiar sweet voice behind him. The dark haired teenage boy nearly felt his heart wanting to leap out from his chest at the sight of Wendy standing opposite of him.

And there she was, looking as beautiful as she had _always_ been.

The raven haired teenage girl looked stunning in a dusty pink, sleeveless dress that stopped right above her knees. The dress had a sweetheart neckline and a tight bodice, while the skirt of her dress was slightly more flowing. She chose to wear a pair of nude wedge sandals that helped to accentuate her well–shaped legs and she tied the whole outfit together with a nude clasp crossbody bag. Her hair was curled up into soft waves that cascaded down her back, and while at first she decided not to go overboard with her makeup look for the night, she still opted to go out of her comfort zone – at least for one night.

''Hi Wendy.'', Stan replied back, stepping forward as he pulled his ex-girlfriend into a small, but friendly hug.

Pulling away from him, Wendy tucked a loose strand of her black hair behind her ear and smiled affectionately at her ex-boyfriend. ''What's up?''

''Nothing much. I was just commenting of how weird Kyle looks without his hat.''

Wendy chuckled to herself and swapped a curious glance with her best friend, who eventually managed to drape her arm around Kyle's shoulder. ''Oh come on Stan, it's _not_ that bad. Right?''

The Jewish teenager could only shrug his shoulders in response, before he cleared his throat and smiled at his raven haired friend. ''I suppose. How about we now stop talking about my hair and go inside the gym?''

Finally admitting defeat, Wendy laughed gently before tugging onto Stan's arm and following their respective best friends inside the school's gymnasium. The teenage girl felt some prickly goosebumps popping all over her skin, as she was still holding onto her ex-boyfriend's upper arm and occasionally swapped a gentle smile with him.

Luckily for all four teenagers, the gymnasium hadn't been as packed as they first anticipated it would be.

Numerous round tables had been scattered throughout the gymnasium, while the DJ booth and a small stage had been set up right underneath where the basketball hoop usually would've been placed. The whole gymnasium was nicely decorated with streamers, ribbons and banners in all shapes and sizes, proudly displaying the collective effort the students put into decorating the gymnasium for the Homecoming dance. A few tables with non-alchoholic beverages were also set up for the students to take a refreshing drink whenever they felt like they would need one.

Not really wanting to waste time with picking out at which table they should sit, both Stan and Wendy opted to sit at a table with all of their closest friends and their respective dates. Some of the other couples that had eventually decided to join the raven haired ex-couple at their table were Tweek and Craig, Token and Nichole, Kyle and Bebe, and to the surprise of absolutely everyone, Kenny McCormick that chose Red Tucker to be his date for the Homecoming dance.

As the Homecoming dance was gradually becoming more and more fun, all the girls and guys were simply enjoying themselves and had a lot of fun, whilst laughing, chatting and dancing with one another.

Both Stan and Wendy were also having lots of fun together, playfully roasting each other and simply enjoying each other's company. The raven haired teenage girl also managed to take a few selfies with her closest girl friends, as well as with some of her guy friends here and there. And after Token jokingly mentioned that Stan and Wendy should take a selfie together, the two raven haired teenagers simply decided not to cause _too_ much fuss about it and took their very first selfie after nearly eighteen months of them not being together.

Their attempts at dancing together had proven more or less unsuccessful, since Wendy insisted that both her and Stan should dance to the songs with a faster rhythm, but it ended up being hilariously bad for either of them. The two friends decided to take a step back when it came to dancing, at least up until the right song was about to come around.

After a few rounds of upbeat pop music and latin music, nearly everyone's ears perked up when DJ announced for the students to take their Homecoming dates and to hit the dancefloor.

''Okay everyone! After a few rounds of good old pop sounds, it's time we go old school with a song that was simply made for slow and romantic dancing. Ladies and gentlemen, _Unchained Melody_ by the Righteous Brothers coming right up!'', the DJ spoke enthusiastically, enticing a lot of couples to drag themselves onto the dancefloor.

''I guess we could do this one? I mean, how hard can it be to fuck up a slow dance?'', Stan said, causing his ex-girlfriend to let out a soft giggle.

''Oh please Stan, how can I believe that you won't step on my toes for the third time this evening?'', Wendy pondered, resting her chin against her hand and raising an inviting eyebrow at her ex-boyfriend.

Without uttering a single word, Stan smirked at his ravenette counterpart and got up from his seat. He offered his hand out to Wendy, who was trying her hardest to stop her cheeks from flushing bright pink. The two raven haired teenagers made their way over to the dancefloor, joining about a dozen couples on the slightly more spacious part of the gymnasium.

Swapping a gentle smile with him, Wendy placed both of her hands on Stan's shoulder, while he clasped both of his hands slightly above his ex-girlfriend's hips. As the song began playing, Stan and Wendy tried to find the best balance with one another, gently swaying from side to side and simply allowing themselves to indulge into the slow rhythm of the beautiful, romantic song.

_''Time goes by so slowly  
And time can do so much  
Are you still mine?''_

Wendy subtly took a step closer to Stan and rested her head on his shoulder, inhaling the dangerously exquisite scent of his cologne and his raven black hair. She felt her senses becoming engulfed with her ex-boyfriend's scent, and felt her heart beating rapidly against her ribcage.

Stan was still maintaining a firm grip slightly above Wendy's hips, but he suddenly spun both of them around and locked his bright blue eyes with his ex-girlfriend's brown ones, feeling his heart skipping about a hundred fucking beats at the sight of his beautiful dance partner. They both smiled gently at one another, before they both re-affirmed the grips they had on each other's bodies.

And even without exchanging a single word, both Stan and Wendy could still see that special twinkle forming in their eyes whenever they swapped an adoring glance with one another.

_''I need your love  
I need your love  
God speed your love to me.''_

After the song finished, Stan and Wendy returned to their table and also returned to playfully roasting each other and joking, until the raven haired beauty quietly excused herself to go to the ladies' restroom and left her dance partner to be all on his own, since the rest of their friends had scurried off to the dancefloor or were sitting at the other tables with their classmates.

But little did the raven haired quarterback know that his good mood was about to drop significantly, and all thanks to one particular brunette teenager.

''Hey Stan.''

Letting out an exasperated groan, Stan knew very well why his mood had suddenly dropped upon hearing a very unwelcomed voice coming from the girl standing right behind him.

Turning around, he felt a sour scowl spreading across his face as he noticed his other ex-girlfriend Lola standing in close proximity.

Admittedly, the brunette teenager looked gorgeous in a navy blue dress with a bardot neckline and ruffled hem. Her hair was sleeked down completely and put into a low ponytail with curled up ends. She definitely wore a little bit more makeup than usual, and was clutching tightly onto her white crossbody bag.

While she had maybe looked stunning on the outside, Lola's outer beauty was only concealing her not so good personality and an ulterior motive – an attempt to manipulate Stan into feeling sorry for her to the point of where he would've felt like an absolute idiot if he didn't take her back.

But the raven haired quarterback had already gotten past Lola's manipulation tactics that she had been trying to bestow upon him ever since their breakup that happened nearly five months ago.

Pinching the bridge of his nose, Stan huffed out nervously. ''Lola, what do you want?''

Putting on the fakest smile imaginable, Lola cocked her head to the side and smiled sweetly at her ex-boyfriend. ''Hey Stan. Well, I just want to talk to you real quick, and nothing more than that.''

Scoffing out in disbelief, Stan narrowed his eyes at the brunette teenage girl. ''Oh sure, it's _always_ a 'quick talk' with you. And then you try to manipulate me again and make me feel sorry for you and your faux fucking life problems.''

Slightly taken aback by the bluntless in her ex-boyfriend's voice, Lola tried her best to compose herself and not lose her shit once again. ''No, it's not about me this time. I actually want to talk somewhere where not a lot of people can interrupt us. Maybe near the punch bowl table?''

Groaning out annoyingly, Stan realized that there was absolutely no point in acting like a total douchebag to the person that had _already_ proven themselves to be quite a douchebag on their own.

Lola quietly walked over to the part of the gymnasium that hadn't been as crowded as the rest of the room, but still had a few people sprinkled here and there. She sat down on the nearby bench, suggesting to her ex-boyfriend to sit down right beside her.

But of course, Stan decided not to cave into Lola's notorious charm and opted to stand right opposite of her, with his hands shoved inside the pockets of his suit pants. ''What's so important to talk about that you dragged me all the way to here?''

''Stan…'', Lola began in a slightly lower voice, summoning the courage to gaze up into the quarterback's stunningly bright blue eyes. ''I've been really thinking about us recently and realized that I want you back, but for real this time. Trust me!''

''I _don't_ trust you at all. Or with anything for that matter.'', Stan responded back straightforwardly, clearly not being in the mood to deal with any of one Lola's dumb pleadings. ''I'm not as dumb as you think I am, Lola.'', he continued. ''And besides, I'm currently one hundred percent focused on football, and on nothing else.''

''Oh sure, football's always been nothing else but an excuse to you.'', a deadly venom spat from Lola's voice, as she got up on her feet and glared absolute daggers at her crush.

''Or maybe…'', the brunette girl began trailing off, as one thought popped up into her mind. ''Or maybe it is hard for you to admit that you maybe have feelings for your ex-girlfriend Wendy? And you're just using football as an excuse to hide your true feelings for her?''

Stan shook his head in disbelief, before running one hand down the side of his face and snorting out loudly. ''Did you _maybe_ have something else to drink? I assume vodka is your prefered liquor of choice, right?''

''Do you _really_ think I'm that stupid Stan? I can tell it from miles away that you're clearly not over Wendy as much as you have convinced yourself you are.''

''The _only_ things that you can tell are the gossip and bullshit you gleefully spread around about the handful of friends you've still got left. And that's it.'', the quarterback stated. ''I don't have feelings for either one of my ex-girlfriends, if you really want to know it.''

''Oh yeah? Well, your opinion might change after this.'', Lola sniped back.

Stan's bright blue eyes expanded to the size of saucers as he felt Lola absolutely plummeting her lips against his and affirming a tight grip around his shoulders, causing all kinds of reactions to spread across the gymnasium.

The gorgeous brunette girl parted her lips just slightly and awkwardly began to kiss Stan's lips. But of course, no matter how with much force she was trying to hold onto her ex-boyfriend, the hope of him kissing her back was squashed almost immediately. Stan managed to easily squirm himself out of Lola's firm grip, wiping off the remnants of her peachy nude lipstick and glaring absolute daggers at her.

''My feelings for Wendy are none of your fucking business, got it?'', Stan spoke in a heated tone, trying his best not to fly off the handle.

''Just stay away from me, my friends and my life. Okay?'', the raven haired quarterback spoke coldly, before turning around on the spot and making a direct beeline for the men's restroom.

But unbeknownst to the dark haired teenager and to almost everyone present in the gymnasium, Wendy had been watching the entire scene unfold from start to finish.

Just as Lola had managed to wrap her hands around Stan's shoulders, Wendy entered inside the gymnasium and felt her heart splitting in half at the sight of her ex-boyfriend being entwined with his other ex-girlfriend.

The raven haired beauty was trying her damnedest not to allow one, solitary tear to run down her cheek. She inhaled deeply, trying to stop her heart from pounding so heavily inside her chest. Once she felt a little bit calmer, Wendy turned her head towards the gymnasium's entrance and decided to hold her head up high and to try to get the gut-wrenching image of Lola kissing Stan out of her head.

But not even that had been the main reason why she was on the verge of an anxiety attack.

One seemingly accidental confession that had slipped out from her ex-boyfriend's mouth was now completely stuck inside of the dark haired teenage girl's mind. And she was one hundred percent sure that would only screw up hers and Stan's friendship, but for _exactly_ what cost?

_''My feelings for Wendy are none of your fucking business, got it?''_

That one simple sentence kept on replaying in Wendy's head over and over, as if it were set on a constant loop.

But more importantly, the teenage girl _finally_ had a much more clearer vision when it came to her dubious feelings for her dark haired ex-boyfriend.

Because no matter how much she had attempted to deny it before, Wendy was now certain that she wasn't quite over Stan as much as she had been trying to convince herself.

* * *

The rest of the Homecoming evening seemed to stretch on forever, even after the Homecoming dance was over.

After the whole Lola and Stan debacle, Wendy decided to switch tables in an attempt to completely avoid her ex-boyfriend and for him not to see her being so distraught and stressed out over the whole situation. But much to Wendy's surprise, Stan managed to leave the men's restroom fairly quickly after Kyle and Kenny went after him in an attempt to talk to him over everything that had happened with Lola.

The raven haired beauty spent the rest of the evening hanging out with Tweek, Craig, Millie and Clyde, who all actually turned out to be a very good company and a fun bunch for Wendy to spend the time with. It definitely helped her ease down her anxious thoughts even more, but she definitely didn't feel too eager about going to the Homecoming afterparty that was about to take place at Token's house.

Especially knowing that there was a high chance of her bumping into Stan, and the teenage girl hadn't been sure if she was really ready to face her ex-boyfriend after the whole debacle with his other ex-girlfriend.

After Bebe somehow managed to convince her best friend not to give up on the afterparty, Wendy's mother picked up both of the teenage girls and drove them back to the Testaburger residence so that the girls could get changed into something more casual and appropriate for the small get-together after the Homecoming dance.

Wendy swapped her dusty pink Homecoming dress for something slightly more comfortable, but fashionable nonetheless. She wore a white off the shoulder cropped top with three-quarter sleeves, a pair of black high-waisted ripped skinny jeans and the nude wedge sandals she had worn earlier to the dance. She decided not to do anything too much with her hair and makeup, but she did fix her makeup just slightly.

After her mother kindly dropped her and Bebe off to Token's ginormous house, Wendy's mood improved just a little bit. The raven haired teenage girl had known very well that spending the time with her closest girl friends and talking to them would lift her mood up a little bit.

Wendy's mood did drop significantly after seeing her ex-boyfriend entwined with his other ex-girlfriend, who used to be one of her closest friends for years. But then again, the teenage girl managed to walk out of the gymnasium right before she was about to have a fucking anxiety attack from everything she had witnessed. At least she was strong enough not to let the emotions get the best of her.

With this thought still drumming inside of her mind, Wendy clutched onto her beer can and took a long sip out of it, allowing the sticky alchoholic beverage to sting her throat for the briefest moment. She glanced over at her best friend Bebe and her boyfriend impulsively snuggling up together in the armchair that was just big enough to fit both of them.

Wendy's ears soon perked up at the sound of a slightly deeper male voice coming from the person standing very close to her. And the raven haired teenage girl knew exactly to whom the voice belonged to. It made her feel slightly more nervous than before, but it also managed to make her heart flutter in her chest at the same time.

''Hey…'', Stan said, looking down at Wendy with a look of hope pooling in his beautiful blue eyes.

''Hey you.'', she replied in a surprisingly sweet tone, momentarily forgetting about everything that had happened earlier that evening.

''Wendy…'', Stan spoke, taking a seat on the couch next to his ex-girlfriend. ''I'm so fucking sorry for leaving you hanging.''

''It's okay Stan, really. I just want to know if you were okay after the whole shit show?''

''Yeah, I'm feeling a bit better.'', he responded, smiling at the raven haired girl. ''I actually wanted to talk to you about that.''

''I honestly didn't want to make you feel upset about Lola kissing me. I know you and I are on pretty good terms and I really didn't want to make you think as if I did that on purpose, or even worse, to sour our friendship, you know?''

''Why should I be upset about her kissing you? I mean, we are exes and everything, but at least we managed to split up on friendly terms.'', Wendy said. ''Lola's clearly jealous about us being good friends and not acting so awkward about it.''

''Well, I tried explaining that to her, but she simply wouldn't listen. That's why I had to tell her to stay the fuck away from me.''

Wendy could feel chest getting relieved from so much pressure after hearing Stan's reassuring words. She smiled half-heartedly at him, before taking another long sip of her beer. ''Heh, good.''

''So, you're not mad at me for ditching you?''

''No.'', she replied. ''Even if we disregard everything that happened with Lola, I still had a pretty good time with you.''

''Good to know.'', Stan smirked.

Reluctantly, Wendy bit down on her bottom lip and took another sip from her beer. ''Uh, Stan?''

''Yeah?'', the dark haired quarterback responded.

''Can I offer you a gentle peck on the cheek? You know, just to say thanks for being such a good friend and inviting me to go with you to the Homecoming?''

The quarterback felt his heart beating at a faster pace as he allowed his ex-girlfriend's words to drift across his mind. Although had felt a bit surprised by the bluntness in Wendy's offer, he did shrug his shoulders in response and cheekily pointed to a particular spot on his face.

Scoffing out slightly, Wendy smiled at her friend before leaning in and gently pecking him on the cheek, making Stan's cheeks blush the faintest shade of red possible.

As both of them swapped another gentle smile with each other, Stan grabbed his own beer can from the coffee table and gently tapped it against Wendy's, reminding his ex-girlfriend of the exact toast they had shared at the party Red organized a couple of months ago.

''Cheers.''

Gently tapping her beer can against Stan's, Wendy winked teasingly at her ex-boyfriend. ''Cheers indeed.''

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, what can I say about this chapter? It's by far the longest one I've written, with nearly six and a half thousand words in total!
> 
> Did you guys seriously think I wasn't going to spice things up, hm? Of course I wasn't going to let you all down when I said that this chapter is going to be a tad more interesting. One guest actually suggested that I include the scene of Lola kissing Stan on the lips, and I just couldn't write that idea off!
> 
> Clearly, a lot of things happened in this chapter and I can only say that both Stan and Wendy inadvertently confirming that they aren't over each other as much they've convinced themselves they are, is a major game changer.
> 
> But of course, neither of them know about their respective confessions. ;)
> 
> Until the next time,
> 
> \- xoxo, whisperinthemoonlight. ❤


	7. [longing for belonging]

It was the middle of October now, and about two weeks had passed since the events of the Homecoming dance and the very fun afterparty that was held in Token Black's ginormous house.

After the awkward situation involving Stan and his ex-girlfriend Lola, the things between him and his other ex-girlfriend Wendy got back to normal relatively soon, as both of them were able to move on from the incident involving the calculating brunette teenage girl and the heartfelt talk the two of them had shared at the Homecoming afterparty.

Of course, both Stan and Wendy decided not to allow the whole ordeal from the Homecoming dance to put a strain on their friendship, especially when they had been really close to finishing their dreadful Biology assignment and would be set to have a short presentation on the topic of hormones on Monday.

The raven haired ex-couple had been feeling surprisingly good about how they were able to deal with the whole situation involving Lola, especially because both of them had sort of expected from her to cause at least a little bit of trouble and try to win Stan back for perhaps the millionth time ever since the teenage boy broke up with her.

And with the events of the Homecoming dance and the afterparty becoming sort of a distant memory, both Stan and Wendy decided to focus on wrapping up their assignment and putting in the conjoined efforts in order for both of them to get an excellent grade from Biology.

The two teenagers had been working on their parts of the assignment for the past several weeks and were doing a rather good job of balancing between working on their project together and engaging in their usual extracurricular activities – volleyball, cheerleading and the student body council duties for Wendy, and football for Stan.

Stan and Wendy were both comfortably sitting at the dining table in her living room, whilst going through the final nitty-gritty details of their assignment and adding the list of resources they had used in the process of writing the paper, before they would be done with the entire assignment and make a short presentation on the topic of hormones.

''Did you proof-read the assignment?'', Wendy asked, hovering the mouse cursor over the 'save' button in the Microsoft Word app. She glanced over at her ex-boyfriend and raised a curious eyebrow at him, hoping for him to give her an affirmative answer just so they could finally be released from the shackles of the assignment about hormones.

''Yeah, I did it like once or twice.'', Stan confirmed, glancing up from his Biology textbook and smirking at the dark haired teenage girl.

''Alrighty then.'', she replied back, scanning the entire assignment with her chocolate brown eyes once again and allowing a triumphant smile to wriggle across her glossy lips. ''And we are finally done!''

Wendy breathed out a sigh of relief, shutting the lid of her laptop and moving it away from her. She collected all of the discarded papers from the dining table and shoved them inside her own Biology textbook, before scraping out one chair and placing her books on it. She also zipped up her pencil case and finally moved any unnecessary things out of the way.

''I swear if we don't get an A on this…'', Stan said teasingly, as he finally closed his own Biology textbook and put his other school-related things into his backpack. He then slumped himself comfortably in the chair, crossing his arms casually behind his head and giving his ex-girlfriend a small, genuine smirk.

''Relax Stan.'', Wendy began. ''Based on the amount of effort we've put into writing this crap, it would be kinda' ridiculous if we don't get an A. We just have to give a short PowerPoint presentation about it and hope for the best.''

Smirking at his ex-girlfriend, the dark haired teenage boy felt his heart flutter as he was listening to the reassuring tone in Wendy's beautiful voice. She sounded incredibly intelligent and full of self-confidence, definitely not detracting from the fact that she had _always_ strived to achieve just that.

''What time is it?'', Stan was unwillingly snapped out of his adoring daydream by Wendy, who gave him a small smirk.

''Uhh…'', the teenage boy began, reaching for his phone that was in the pocket of his jeans. ''It's three fifty-five PM now. Why?''

''Well, I have to get ready in like an hour because I have the cheerleading practice tonight. I would honestly love to hang out with you just a little bit longer, but I can't skip the practice today because I wasn't able to come last time.'', Wendy explained. ''Also, I'm one hundred percent sure that my coach will be pissed if I don't show up.''

''Oh…'', Stan said, before offering his ex-girlfriend a small smile. ''That's fine, really. I also have to get going relatively soon because I have football practice at six PM.''

''It's cool, and I can sort of understand that you can't really allow yourself to miss a single football practice since you're the quarterback, right?''

Stan simply nodded his head in response, before glancing over to the TV cabinet and noticing that his ex-girlfriend had a Nintendo system plugged into the LCD TV sitting on top of the wooden piece of furniture. ''You have a Nintendo?''

Widening her eyes in pleasant surprise, Wendy confirmed Stan's observation with a simple nod of her head. ''Yeah! Do you wanna' play some Mario Kart?''

Wendy got up from her chair and walked over to the TV, before switching on both the TV and the Nintendo and grabbing two game controllers from one of the cabinet drawers. She shuffled over to the couch and plonked herself down, cocking her head in Stan's direction and suggesting for him to play the video game alongside her.

''You play Mario Kart?'', Stan asked, getting up from his chair and joining his ex-girlfriend on the couch. He took the other game controller and placed it in his lap, swapping a small smirk with Wendy.

She turned on her favorite video game, before cocking an eyebrow at the dark haired teenage boy. ''Yeah, does that surprise you?''

''Hm, a little bit. I've actually never imagined you to be into video games.'', Stan responded.

''Well, Mario Kart is a pretty fun one, though. I usually play it at least a couple of times a week – especially when I want to do something a bit more fun and get the annoying thoughts out of my head.''

''You don't play anything else other than Mario Kart or?''

''Well, I play would Grand Theft Auto…'', Wendy began. ''However, I simply hate the way some of these video games portray women, since they are made out to be nothing else but props with breasts that could be used as floatation devices. It would be hypocritical of me to play these video games, while labeling myself as a proud feminist.''

''Fine point, I guess.'', Stan shrugged his shoulders in response.

''I know what hormones do for you guys when it comes to boobs and video games – it's a perfect combination for the rush of dopamine.''

Smirking cheekily at his raven haired counterpart, Stan simply shook his head. ''Well, look who's being a smart-ass about hormones now?''

''That would be _me_.'', Wendy sniped back playfully. ''Now stop talking about it and pick out the character you're going to race as. I'm picking Bowser, as per usual.''

''Yes m'am.'', Stan replied back teasingly. ''I'm gonna' race as Mario – since he's a classic character.''

After both of them had picked out their characters and spent the next hour or so playing Mario Kart, Stan and Wendy were pretty much on par with one another in terms of getting wins in all four rounds they had completed. And of course, they simply couldn't go without playfully joking and roasting each other along the way.

The teenage girl thanked her ex-boyfriend once again for coming up with the idea about both of them working together on an assignment, and happily walked him out of her house. But before Stan could even take a step outside of Wendy's house, both teenagers swapped a gentle smile with one another and shared a small, friendly hug.

Wendy felt her heart pounding in her chest as Stan wrapped his toned arms around her, pulling her into a gentle hug. She inhaled his addictively exquisite scent, nearly finding herself on the brink of not wanting to let go of the dark haired teenage boy.

However, she was somehow able to surpress that longing desire and reluctantly parted away from Stan, offering him a small smile before he spun around on the spot and started walking away from her house.

Closing the door behind her ex-boyfriend, Wendy turned around on the spot and smiled softly to herself, still feeling Stan's addictive scent linger on her sweatshirt and engulf her nostrils. Her heart was pounding lightly against her ribcage, while the butterflies in her stomach were driving her kind of crazy.

But more importantly, one particular thought had been stuck inside the raven haired girl's head ever since the Homecoming dance.

_Why can't I stop thinking about him?_

* * *

''In conclusion, we can say that the happy hormones are the best type of hormones – no matter if it is endorphine, oxytocin, dopamine or serotonine. And by doing little things that can bring a smile on our faces – like going for a walk, cooking a nice dinner or petting a dog, we can easily increase our levels of happy hormones and only make our lives more positive and better.''

Stan spoke proudly as he finished the presentation and neatly folded his reference paper. He glanced over and smiled warmly at his dark haired assignment partner, who was standing a few metres away from him and was in charge of their presentation. Wendy clicked over to the final slide of their short presentation, before turning around to face their tenth grade Biology class.

''Does anyone have any questions, comments?''

After a few seconds of silence passed and the fact that nobody seemed to be interested into asking any questions whatsoever, Wendy unplugged the USB stick from their teacher's laptop and gave all of her classmates a small smile for at least keeping their mouths shut and not interrupting hers and Stan's presentation. ''Thank you for your attention.''

The teenage girl strolled over to her seat, with a triumphant smile never falling from her face. She plonked herself down in her seat, as she unzipped her pencil case and threw the USB stick inside of it. Crossing her one leg over the other, Wendy swivelled around in her chair and glanced over to her ex-boyfriend, who comfortably sat in his own chair and focused on whatever the heck was going on at the front of the classroom.

While the teenage girl still wasn't sitting in her usual spot, the almost four weeks she spent sitting at the very back of the classroom and being so close to Stan, actually hadn't been so annoying as she first anticipated they would be.

If anything, she was pleasantly surprised by just how much her ex-boyfriend was invested into the lecture. But, that hadn't detracted from the fact that Stan was still a giant tease and would occasionally provoke Wendy with his shenanigans. However, the dark haired beauty wasn't the one to back out from an equally good opportunity to tease her ex-boyfriend as well.

''We nailed it.", Wendy whispered over to Stan, instantly gaining his attention.

The quarterback cocked his head towards the dark haired beauty and gave her a soft smile, slumping himself comfortably in his own chair. ''True that. I would be mad if we don't get at least an A on this stupid assignment.''

''Stupid?''

''Well, normally I would say that it's stupid, but it's not when working with you.''

Slightly taken aback by the sudden compliment that Stan had uttered just a few moments ago, Wendy felt her cheeks blushing the faintest shade of red possible and her lips wriggling into a sweet smile. "Is that supposed to be a compliment?''

''Yeah Testaburger.'', Stan confirmed, smirking at his ravenette counterpart.

The sweet smile was nearly impossible to get wiped off Wendy's face. ''Well, thanks Marsh.''

But before Stan could even respond back to his ex-girlfriend, he was abruptly cut off by Mrs. Harvey. She stacked Stan and Wendy's assignment on top of the numerous other assignments, before folding her arms across her chest and forcing the exuberant twenty five or so students to stop with their noisy chatter.

''Miss Testaburger, Mr. Marsh, I can only say that this was a very nice presentation. You summed up your topic of assignment very well and you also had enough important information and pictures. Based on your presentation, I can only say that I'm anticipating an equally good written assignment. Good job.''

"Thank you.", Wendy responded back politely, offering the shorter blonde woman a small, thankful smirk.

''Who wants to go next?'', Mrs. Harvey asked, scanning the entire classroom with her green eyes. ''Lucy and Eric, how about you two?''

The teenage girl sighed out contently, before noticing that Stan was busy typing something into the notes app on his phone. Subtly glancing over to her ex-boyfriend phone, she read the title of the note and made her curiousity perk up almost instantly.

_Birthday party guest list:_

_Kyle, Kenny, Butters, Fatass, Craig, Tweek, Token, Jimmy, Scott, David, Timmy, Clyde, Red, Bebe, Heidi, Nichole, Wendy, Millie, Lucy, Sophie_

Wendy felt a small smile spreading across her lips, as she noticed her name being on the list of people Stan was potentially going to invite to his birthday party. Of course, the teenage girl hadn't forgotten about October 19th being the day when her ex-boyfriend was born, but she was certainly out of the loop about him throwing a party for his sweet sixteen birthday.

''So…'', Wendy began teasingly. ''A birthday party, huh?''

Looking up from his phone, Stan gave her a slightly confused look, before nodding his head in response and smiling gently at the raven haired beauty. ''Uh yeah, I'm finally gonna' turn sixteen. And that also means I'll be able to get my license soon.''

''Lucky you, some of us will have to wait until December to turn sixteen.''

''Oh well, considering the fact that the first two months of the school have flown by relatively fast, the December will come around in no time. Don't worry about it.''

''So, do you wanna' come to my birthday party on Saturday?'', Stan continued.

''Sure. At what time is it?'', Wendy replied back, smiling sweetly at the raven haired teenage boy.

''Seven-thirty.''

''Cool, see you then!'', the teenage girl said enthusiastically. ''But hey, aren't your parents going to be present at the party as well?''

''Well, since my parents have been spending a fuck lot of time at the hemp farm again, and this weekend will be no exception to that, they actually allowed me to throw a birthday party as long as I promise that nobody would drink.'', Stan explained. ''You know, with the Thanksgiving and Black Friday happening next month, dad and Towelie have been really doing their best to cultivate as much weed as they possibly could before the holidays come around. So that's why they've been super busy.''

''And your parents are okay with you throwing a birthday party?''

''Well, my mom was initially against the party because she thinks that all we are gonna' do is get drunk and make a complete mess throughout the whole house. But, my dad was the complete opposite.'', Stan laughed with a chuckle. ''You know, I talked to him about us drinking booze and I pointed out that him forbiding us to drink would be super fucking hypocritical since he sometimes gets drunk as fuck and tends to do shit around the house.''

''Like that time when got drunk as fuck and forgot to pick up you, Kyle, Ike and Cartman from your karate practice? Didn't he get a DUI for drinking and driving?''

Pinching the bridge of his nose nervously, Stan simply shook his head. ''Yeah, don't remind me about that.''

''Anyway, we are definitely going to get the booze from Clyde's older sister since we promised that none of us will drink too much and that some of us will stay sober throughout the entire evening in case someone needs a ride home.''

''Well, I know that Heidi just got her license, so maybe Bebe and I will come with her. She doesn't really hold her liquor that well anyway, so I know that she won't drink too much.'', Wendy said. ''And let me guess – your dad allowed you to organize a party without any adult supervision, because he trusts you that much?''

''To be perfectly honest, sometimes I trust myself much more than I do my dad.'', Stan admitted, coolly shrugging his shoulders and smirking at the raven haired beauty sitting in the desk next to his.

''Fair point then.'', Wendy smirked back.

* * *

With the thought of her ex-boyfriend's birthday party still drumming in her mind, Wendy decided to give a little bit more thought before choosing what to buy for the soon-to-be sixteen year-old teenage boy.

She sort of had an idea of what to get Stan for his birthday present, but she simply couldn't come up with something that hadn't already been done. However, she did know that there was one person who probably knew Stan better than anyone else.

His long-time best friend, Kyle Broflovski.

After her lunch break was nearly over, Wendy walked outside the school's cafeteria and began to stroll down the hallway towards her tenth grade Advanced Placement Chemistry class. Since she knew that her best friend's boyfriend was probably already inside the classroom, the teenage girl chose to talk to Kyle once she would be inside their AP Chemistry classroom too.

And luckily for Wendy, she happened to come across Kyle who was standing in front of his locker, being busy with taking out his heavy AP Chemistry books and shoving them inside his backpack.

Walking towards the red-headed teenager, Wendy smiled at him and gave him a small wave. ''Hey Kyle.''

Spinning around on the spot, Kyle smiled back at the raven haired teenage girl. ''Hey Wends, what's up?''

''Oh nothing much. Can I talk to you for a minute?''

''Uh, sure. What do you want?''

''Well…'', Wendy began nervously. ''You know that Stan has a birthday party on Saturday?''

''Yeah.'', Kyle nodded his head in response. ''Did he invite you?''

''Yes, he _actually_ did. And because of that, I'm kinda' stuck and I don't know what to get him for his birthday.'', Wendy confirmed, laughing sheepishly as she stuffed her hands inside the pockets of her dark gray cable knit cardigan. ''Also, this will be the first time I'm invited to Stan's party ever since we broke up.''

''Wendy, you know him very, _very_ well. Something football related is always a good present idea.''

''A Broncos hoodie?'', she asked in a slight worry. ''I know that Stan loves Broncos and loves to wear hoodies – so I think I'm gonna get him that as a birthday gift.''

''Sounds like a pretty good idea then.''

''Well, thanks for giving me at least some inspiration of what to buy for Stan.'', Wendy smiled.

''Dude, don't even mention. You are the one who helped me get some courage to _finally_ ask Bebe out after pining over her for nearly three whole years. I'm always more than welcomed to help you, you know?'', Kyle pondered, beaming at one of his oldest female friends.

Kyle and Wendy had always managed to have a very good friendship throughout the whole elementary school and during their Freshman year of high school, mostly because they had known each other for such a long time and shared very similar interests, including being the two voices of reason against the fat tub of lard called Eric Cartman.

And somewhere between him starting sixth grade and transitioning into seventh grade, Kyle found himself falling head over heels for Wendy's gorgeous best friend, Bebe Stevens. Since his last relationship nearly happened in the fourth grade with Heidi Turner, Kyle found himself in a dire assistance of how to win the beautiful blonde's heart – and frankly, he was absolutely enthralled by her in every way possible.

So when he asked Wendy for a few advices of how to get closer to Bebe, she was more than happy to help him and gave the Jewish teenager pretty solid tips of how to complete the seemingly impossible task of asking Bebe out on a date.

And ever since Kyle finally mustered up the courage to ask her out on a date, him and Bebe had been happily dating for nearly two years.

''Hey, is everything okay between you and Stan?''

Widening her eyes in slight surprise, Wendy laughed through a chuckle and responded with a sole nod of her head. ''Yeah, I guess. Why do you ask?''

''Well, I do know that he kinda' left you hanging at the Homecoming dance and then we saw you guys talking at the afterparty, so I just assumed…'', Kyle shrugged his shoulders, slinging his backpack lazily against his back as he began strolling towards the AP Chemistry classroom, with Wendy dragging herself beside him.

''Oh that.'', Wendy laughed nervously. ''We sorted everything out. He told me that Lola purposefuly made up an excuse in order to talk to him and manipulate him to try to get them back together. Initially, he told her to stay away from him, but when she wouldn't listen to him and kissed him against his will, Stan nearly lost his shit and went to the men's restroom to cool off for at least half an hour.''

''I saw everything. Lola's truly fucked in the head.'', Kyle rolled his hazel eyes, as him and Wendy entered inside the classroom and walked over to their usual seats. ''Did you know that she made up a rumor about her presumed best friend Jenny having herpes just so that her chances of getting together with Kevin would get fucked up. But of course, Jenny being Jenny, she's _still_ convinced that Lola wasn't the one who made up the rumor, but Red and Bebe instead. And that's why she nearly lost her shit at the two of them during Craig's end of the year party.''

''Lola is just pathetic. She used to be my friend up until she got together with Stan and pretty much established herself as the fucking 'queen bee' of our school, just because she was dating the school's new quarterback star.'', Wendy rolled her eyes, scraping one chair out and sitting down in her usual seat.

''I don't know the every single ins and outs of your friendships, but I do know that Lola's been annoying Stan ever since he dumped her. It truly reached its boiling point at the Homecoming, no doubt.''

''I honestly have much, much more important things to deal with than to worry about my ex-friend's attempts at winning back the same guy we used to date.''

''Truth to be told, I think Stan's way better with you than with Lola.'', Kyle admitted, unzipping his backpack and taking out his AP Chemistry textbook.

Kyle's blunt confession made Wendy's thinking come to a sudden halt. She went silent for a few moments, as she allowed herself to realize _what_ the auburn haired teenager had just said. Of course, the raven haired beauty didn't have too much reasons to try and dispute Kyle's confession – she had always thought that Lola wasn't necessarily the best girlfriend material for Stan.

''You _really_ think that?'', Wendy raised a curious eyebrow.

''Sure, why not? I don't know if you guys will _ever_ get back together, but I do remember that Stan wasn't exactly the happiest with Lola and dealing with her being super annoying. I know you and Stan had your qualms, but he was definitely much happier with you than with Lola.''

''Well, only time will tell. That's all I can say.'', the raven haired beauty smiled sheepishly.

Although she might've not been too keen to discuss the topic of her getting back together with Stan, deep down Wendy knew that she had been finding less and less reasons to think the _exact_ opposite.

But _even_ more importantly, the thought of her and Stan being together again was definitely something she had been wishing for and hoping to become a reality again.

* * *

Wendy stared herself up and down in the mirror, smiling contently to herself. She closed the compact mirror of her pressed powder and placed it back in her makeup bag, spinning around on the spot and walking over to grab her paddle brush from the bed.

She quickly ran the hair brush through her long raven black locks, trying to get rid of any leftover tangles and messy parts of her straightened hair. Once she was done making her hair look incredibly smooth and generally free of tangles, Wendy tossed the hair brush back onto the bed and grabbed her black studded crossbody bag.

Although she had never been the one to fuss too much about her looks, Wendy had sort of a tough time picking out what she was going to wear for her ex-boyfriend birthday party. But of course, the teenage girl decided not to waste too much on choosing her outfit and opted to wear something that was comfortable, but also cute as well.

She was wearing a black off the shoulder top with white polka dots, a pair of high-waisted ripped blue skinny jeans and her favorite black Vans sneakers. She completed the whole outfit with her studded black crossbody bag and her new black teddy coat.

Once she was done with her complete look for the birthday party, Wendy grabbed Stan's birthday present and dashed outside her bedroom, closing the door behind her and scurrying off downstairs to the living room. The smile was simply too big to get wiped off her face, and her mother, Mrs. Testaburger, noticed that as well.

The older raven haired woman kindly offered to drop her daughter off to Stan's house, and was definitely interested into getting more details out of her daughter and why she was suddenly invited to her ex-boyfriend's birthday party. That had been the thought Mrs. Testaburger was holding onto during the entire short car ride from the Testaburger residence to the Marsh residence.

''Have fun sweetie. And remember – don't drink more than one cup of booze and take care of yourself, as well as your friends if they are going to need it.'', Mrs. Testaburger said, as her daughter swung the car door open and stepped outside onto the pavement.

''I won't mom, don't worry about it.''

''Oh, and wish Stan happy birthday from both me and your dad. Wait, this is his seventeenth birthday, right?''

''Sixteenth.'', Wendy corrected her mom, before finally climbing out of the car. ''And I will tell him that you wish him a happy birthday.''

''Bye mom. Heidi will drop me off tonight, so don't worry about picking me up.''

Finally closing the passenger door behind her, Wendy offered her mother a small wave and adjusted her bag over her shoulder. She tightened the grip she had on the bag containing Stan's birthday present, feeling a gentle smile spread across her lips as she peeked inside the bag one more time.

After listening to Kyle's advice, Wendy bought her ex-boyfriend one of the newest Denver Broncos hoodies, something which she knew that Stan would definitely enjoy. She also bought him a gift packet of his favorite _Hershey's_ chocolates and an exquisitely scented cologne.

Once the teenage girl reached the front entrance of the dark green house, she felt her heart absolutely thumping in her chest. She could also hear the music blasting from the loudspeakers in the living room, and as she peered through the curtains, she saw almost all of her classmates drinking, dancing and simply having a good time with each other.

Wendy spun around on the spot and reached for the brass door knob, before swinging the front door open and taking a step inside of the Marsh residence for the first time in a while. And of course, her mind was instantly flooded with memories she had experienced underneath the very same roof, but felt her heart skip a sad beat as she realized that the majority of those memories were a thing of the past now.

Her smile only grew bigger as she noticed Red and Nichole sitting in one corner of the living room, taking tequila shots and having a crap ton of fun together. She took off her coat and hooked it onto the nearly full coat hanger, before taking a step closer to her two girl friends and greeting them.

''Hey girls!'', Wendy chirped happily, taking a seat on the couch and sitting relatively close to the two other teenage girls. She gave both of her friends a gentle hug, before raising a curious eyebrow at the tequila-drinking duo.

''What's up?''

''Nothing much.'', Nichole replied. ''We just started with our tequila shots.''

''Yeah, do you want one?'', Red said, offering her raven haired friend a small shot glass and a piece of lime to chew on it in case she decided to take a shot of the strong liquor.

Shrugging her shoulders, Wendy smiled as she positioned herself on the carpeted floor. She extended her hand out in order to allow Red to sprinkle some salt on it, before taking the small shot glass to her lips and swallowing down the strong alcoholic drink. She coughed out almost instantly, grabbing the lime slice and sucking on it as hard as she possibly could.

''That's _so_ disgusting, but so good at the same time!'', Wendy coughed out once again, smiling sheepishly at her two close friends.

But before she could even shake off the nasty taste of tequila from her lips, the raven haired beauty's ears perked up at the sound of a slightly deeper male voice calling her name out.

''Hey Wends.''

Glancing up at the tall figure above her, Wendy smiled affectionately and rose up to her feet. She extended her hand out to Stan and shook hands with him. ''Hey Stan! Happy birthday!''

''Thanks, I'm glad you decided to come.'', he smiled sweetly at her, watching her turn away from him for the briefest moment and grab his birthday present from the couch.

''I bought you something really special and handy. I'm hoping you're gonna' like it and that it will be very useful to you.''

''Thanks! But you really didn't have to get me anything, honestly.'', Stan smiled, taking a long sip out of his beer can.

''Oh well, I don't care about that. I'm pretty sure that you will like the present, but even more importantly, let's go have some fun birthday boy!''

Chuckling at his beautiful ex-girlfriend, Stan simply grinned at Wendy and brushed gently against her, before dashing upstairs to bring the birthday present to his bedroom and far away from anyone else to see them.

About an hour or so later, the party was in a full swing. Everyone seemed to have a crap ton of fun, slowly getting tipsier and tipsier with each drink they had consumed, dancing to the great music and simply enjoying Stan's sixteenth birthday party all together.

After taking three or four tequila shots, Wendy started to feel a little bit dizzy and decided to get a bit of fresh, cool October air to refreshen herself up. She grabbed her coat from the coat hanger and made her way through the mass of partying teenagers towards the sliding back door of the house. She pushed the back door open, taking a step outside onto the back porch and noticing that the picnic bench was occupied by a very familiar raven haired teenager.

''Oh, hey you.'', Wendy spoke teasingly.

''Hey…'', Stan turned his head to face his ravenette counterpart, offering a gentle smile.

''Whatcha' doing outside? I thought the party boy was going to be inside and get drunk as fuck, since it's his sweet sixteenth birthday.'', she teased even further, sitting down on the wooden bench.

''Well, I don't want to get _too_ drunk already.'', the newly crowned sixteen year old spoke, taking another sip out of his beer can. ''And nothing like the cool mountain air that can bring the instant feeling of refreshment, am I right?''

''True that. I've taken like three, four shots of tequila and it's already making my vision kinda' blurry.''

''Here's a tip – don't drink tequila, and have a can of beer instead.''

''Well, I might. Once I start feeling just a bit better and allow this booze to shake off.''

''You will, don't worry about it.''

Swapping another affectionate smile with each other, Stan and Wendy simply gazed into their eyes. Both of their hearts were beating rapidly in their chests, especially due to the fact that both of them got closer to each other over the past several weeks.

Stan tucked a loose strand of Wendy's hair behind her ear, sending electrifying sensations throughout her veins. She smiled shyly at her ex-boyfriend, before she noticed him scooting just a little bit closer to her than before.

''What?'', she raised a curious eyebrow, looking up at him through her dark lashes.

''Just close your eyes and let me do something, okay?'', Stan whispered gently.

''Okay…'', Wendy said in a slightly cautious tone, before shutting her eyes.

And not even a few seconds later, Stan gently cupped the left side of Wendy's face with his hand and leaned in to press his lips against hers for the first time since their painful breakup. He tenderly pecked her lips, grazing his thumb across the soft skin of her face. The incredible sensation coursed through his veins for the first time in a while, and the beating of his heart increased even more as he felt Wendy gently reciprocating the exchange, though more timidly and tentatively than the dark haired quarterback.

The teenage girl could only feel gentle goosebumps forming all over her skin underneath Stan's enticing touch, making her heart race even faster than before and the warm sensations flow through her veins.

_Stan and her together. Stan and her finally kissing after such a fucking long time._

However, just as she brushed her hand against Stan's and realized _exactly_ what she was doing, Wendy's eyes shot open like a rocket. She suddenly ceased their tender exchange, widening her eyes in pure astonishment and slowly moving away from her ex-boyfriend.

''No Stan…'', the teenage girl suddenly got up on her feet and turned her back to him, trying her damnedest not to allow newly-formed tears to fall from her eyes. ''I can't.''

''Wendy, what's wrong?'', getting up from the bench and attempting to take her by the hand once again, Stan felt his heart splitting in two at the unwelcomed feeling of pain pooling in Wendy's beautiful brown eyes.

The teenage girl simply wasn't able to understand what had just occurred, let alone utter a single response.

Because all of her thoughts and revelations about Stan were about to come to a boiling point sooner or later, but all of them had been hiding something even bigger – Wendy's feelings for her ex-boyfriend that never managed to fade away, not even eighteen months since their breakup.

But, Wendy was scared. Truly scared to admit the fact that she still hadn't been over Stan, no matter how much she tried to deny it, claim the exact opposite or try her damnedest to conceal those feelings.

''It's nothing.'', Wendy said blankly, before she spun around on the spot and dashed inside the house again, leaving Stan completely heart-broken over the whole incident.

The teenage boy had been pretty much in the same headspace as his gorgeous ex-girlfriend. No matter how much he attempted to conceal his feelings and affections for Wendy, Stan decided to finally tell her how he had truly felt about her.

But of course, love confessions and alcohol had never been a good combination, and the teenage boy had to learn it the hard way. And to potentially jeopardize his friendship with Wendy in the long run and ruin his chances of ever getting close to her again.

''Wendy!''

Completely disregarding Stan's attempts at calling out for her, Wendy grabbed her crossbody bag from the couch and made a direct beeline for the front door. She pushed the front door open and sprinted outside, finally letting out a sob and allowing more fresh tears to stream down her face.

''Shit!'', the teenage girl muttered to herself angrily, with tears now falling freely from her eyes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello dear readers, I'm back with another update!
> 
> I honestly would've updated the story a little bit earlier, but I was struggling with a major writer's block and I simply couldn't force myself to come up with anything even remotely good to write. Writing a new chapter seemed like a Herculean task to me, but I did manage to finally finish it.
> 
> What can I say about this chapter? Stan and Wendy's denial reached its boiling point and I thought that them finally kissing could be a pretty good turn of the events. And frankly, them kissing was probably my favorite part to write about!
> 
> The part of Stan kissing Wendy was heavily inspired by the scene of Ben attempting to kiss Devi in the eighth episode of Never Have I Ever (side note – I'm seriously going to lose my shit if they don't end up together in the season two, because I can't express how much I adore them!)
> 
> I'm hoping to post the new updates at a slightly faster rate and to wrap the story up before November comes around. At this point, we only have three chapters left, maybe even four if I feel like doing it.
> 
> Until the next time guys,
> 
> \- xoxo, whisperinthemoonlight. ❤


	8. [undeniable]

Glancing over at the kitchen clock once again, Wendy tried to force down another yawn. She looked gloomily at her nearly finished bowl of cereal, sighing out and reaching for her mug in order to gulp down the remainder of her hot cocoa.

Her parents had already gone to work, so she had a little bit of time on her own and to try to collect the scattered thoughts that had been clouding her mind ever since Saturday night. And because she had spent the majority of night tossing and turning in her bed, the teenage girl felt kind of affected by the lack of good night's sleep.

Reaching for her phone, Wendy unlocked it and saw that it was a little bit past seven twenty-five AM. Sighing out once again, she hopped off the kitchen stool and walked towards the sink to place the dirty dishes inside of it. As she walked past the centre island, she grabbed her phone and noticed that she had gotten a couple of text messages from her best friend Bebe.

_'I'm outside. You coming?'_

_'Come onnnn'_

Smiling softly to herself, the dark haired teenage girl quickly typed out a response and peeked through the kitchen window, noticing that Bebe's car was parked in the driveway of her family's house. Once she caught the attention of her best friend, Wendy gave her a small wave, before spinning around on the spot and walking towards the front door.

_'In two, three minutes. I just finished my breakfast, so…'_

She buttoned down her black teddy coat and slipped on her black Uggs, swinging her school backpack over her shoulder and grabbing the house keys from the small wooden cupboard that was placed near the door. The teenage girl then locked the front door of her house and made direct a beeline for the curly blonde's car.

''Hey girl.'', Wendy said, opening the passenger door of the car and climbing inside. She shrugged off her backpack and placed it down beside her feet, before turning towards Bebe and noticing that her oldest friend hadn't exactly been her usual self in the early morning – perky for a person who usually didn't rely on coffee to help them get through the day.

''Hi…'', the blonde teenager responded back in a slightly groggy tone, unsuccessfully trying to cover up the fact that she had also been the one to struggle with getting enough of sleep. She let out a yawn, feeling eager to slump her head against the steering wheel and to simply drift off into the sweet slumber again. ''I'm so tired, Wends. I've barely slept a wink.''

''Yeah, I can tell.'', Wendy commented, eyeing her best friend up and down. ''Are you sure that you can drive us to school? I mean, I can still catch the bus and get to school on time…''

''No, it's fine. I'm only feeling sleepy because I was facetiming with Kyle up until one in the morning, and we honestly would've talked a bit longer if it hadn't been for his mom barging into his room to tell him to _finally_ go to sleep.'', Bebe replied as she roared her car engine into life and switched in the reverse gear. She slowly drove out of the driveway and pulled into one of the many South Park's residential streets.

''That sounds like a pretty valid reason to stay up late. Unlike me, who only stayed up because of AP Chemistry homework I've been attempting to do as fast as I possibly could.''

Chuckling to herself, Bebe shook her head at the raven haired friend. ''Oh Wendy, can you give yourself just a little break from all the homework and studying? Both you and I know that you will have an A from the AP Chem regardless.''

''Well, I know.'', Wendy droned. ''But, I just want to do something productive and something that's actually going to distract me from thinking about everything that happened last weekend.''

''What happened last weekend? Does it have to do something with Stan?'', Bebe asked, slightly taken aback by the sombre tone in the raven haired beauty's voice. ''Because it's not like I've seen you guys talking much after his birthday party, or interacting with each other for that matter.''

''I was honestly hoping you wouldn't guess it, but yeah, it _is_ about him.'', Wendy confirmed blankly, resting her head against the car window and gazing into the gloomy October sky.

''Of course I knew it was about him. I know you _way_ too well, Wends.'', the older of the two teenage girls chuckled. ''You know, at first I didn't notice that you left. However, when Kyle told me that Stan seemed to be significantly less thrilled about his birthday and that he saw you leaving the party relatively early, it didn't take me too long to realize that something must've happened between you two.''

''Well, it did. And I think it's going to fuck up our friendship, or if it isn't already screwed up.'', the dark haired teenage girl huffed out nervously.

''So, what happened?''

''He kissed me.''

''Wait, Stan _actually_ kissed you? Like, full on kissed you?'', Bebe commented in disbelief, drumming her manicured fingertips against the steering wheel.

''Yeah…'', Wendy confirmed in a slightly exasperated tone, pinching the bridge of her nose nervously and resting her head against the window of her best friend's car. ''But it's not like I was expecting it. We were just sitting on the bench outside and made small talk, and then he asked me if he can do something. And the next thing you know, _his_ lips are on _mine_.''

After the whole awkward situation involving her ex-boyfriend, Wendy had spent the majority of the week pretending as if everything were fine and did a lot of things to try to steer her train of thoughts away from Stan – cheerleading, volleyball, putting an extra effort towards finishing her more daunting schoolwork faster…

However, when _none_ of those things had seemed to help her, she simply decided not to talk to Stan until she was feeling a little less frustrated over the whole kissing ordeal.

But to make things slightly more complicated, neither Stan nor Wendy had mustered up the courage to talk to each other over the whole situation yet, with her being the more adamant one when it came to not talking to her ex-boyfriend. Not to mention that she had been trying her hardest to ignore the trepidation of facing the dark haired teenage boy.

And that was the main reason why she gave Bebe an affirmative response when she asked her if she would like to drive both of them to school throughout the week, as well as carpooling with some of their other girl friends that got their licenses before.

''But did you like it?''

Suddenly snapped out of her longing daydream, Wendy cocked a rather unimpressed eyebrow at the blonde girl sitting behind the steering wheel. ''Liked the fact that Stan actually kissed me?''

''Well, yeah.'', Bebe confirmed with a cheeky smirk plastered on her face, switching on the indicator and taking a left turn into the school's half-full parking lot. ''But it's not just about that – he kissed you for the first time ever since you guys broke up.'', she continued further, looking around for the nearest empty parking spot.

''So?'', the raven haired girl responded back.

''So what? Wends, this is like a major gamechanger when it comes to you two. I mean, things have been going on very well for you guys – doing an assignment together, hugging after both of your respective Homecoming games and then going to the dance together. Do I need to say anything else?''

''No?'', Wendy said, with reluctance ringing in her voice. ''I mean, just because we've been friends again for several months now, it doesn't mean we will necessarily go back to that. Or become something more than friends.''

''Well, let me ask you this – did you like the kiss?'', Bebe asked further.

''Uh, no?''

"Bullshit Wendy, I know you did.", the blonde girl replied back bluntly, definitely not giving her best friend _any_ chance to get herself out of the conversation about her ex-boyfriend.

"Look, Stan did ask me if he can do something, but I didn't expect him to kiss me! I maybe didn't pull away immediately, but I got fucking scared once I realized what had I done.", Wendy said, hastily unbuckling her seat belt and reaching for her backpack from the car floor.

Groaning out frustratingly, she climbed out of Bebe's car and closed the door behind her. Once Bebe locked her car, the two teenage girls began to make their way towards the school's entrance and were attempting to at least look forward to lunch time – one time of the day when they could be together with the rest of their girl friends and indulge themselves into their usual chit-chat and newest school gossip.

''Are you actually mad at him for kissing you?''

"I don't know Bebe, I'm more scared to face the fact that I haven't been over Stan in the slighest.'', Wendy replied as she stopped in her tracks, running one hand down the side of her face. "Yes, dating Lucas kinda' helped me forget about Stan, but just how much? You can't compare a relationship that lasted six months to a relationship that lasted nearly six years.

''No matter how sort of a serious my relationship with Lucas was, he just didn't make me feel the same way Stan managed to. Even after we broke up numerous times because of the pettiest little things, that never detracted from how I've felt about him.''

"I honestly don't remember you chickening out this much over a guy ever since the third grade and that substitute teacher.", Bebe pondered through a chuckle, attempting to lift up her best friend's mood.

''Well, she ended up in the sun. It's definitely not something I'm super proud of, but at least I showed that I'm willing to fight for the person I love.'', Wendy said. ''Anyway, I don't know if I will be able to avoid Stan much longer. He has sent me several messages on both IG and Facebook since Sunday, but I muted him. I've just felt really overwhelmed with everything.''

''It's okay sweetie.'', Bebe said, offering her best friend the sweetest smile possible and pulling her into a comforting hug. ''I'm sure things will fall back into place between you two. They always have and probably will always do.''

''You think?'', the dark haired beauty asked.

''One hundred percent. I think it's starting to become pretty obvious that you guys still have feelings for each other, but are too fucking stubborn to talk about it and sort your shit out. I know you _both_ can, because Kyle said the exact same thing once he pieced everything together.''

''I hope so too.''

Because no matter how much she had been trying to forget the bittersweet memory of being in the lip lock with her ex-boyfriend, Wendy just couldn't get it out of her head. And she simply couldn't force herself to further deny the feelings she had for Stan.

But more importantly, she was just hoping that he had still felt the same way about her as she felt about him.

* * *

''I'm sorry, but I still don't buy it. You're really going to throw a party this weekend?'', Kyle chuckled in slight disbelief, taking a bite out of his chicken tortilla.

''W-well, why not? My parents are flying out to Hawaii for their anniversary and I will be home alone all weekend.'', Butters smiled nervously, twiddling with his thumbs. ''And my crazy grandma suffered a heart attack, so she's forced to stay in the hospital for at least some time!''

''So in other words, you will be home alone for the first time _ever_?'', Kenny chimed into the whole conversation, poking a straw into a half-empty Pepsi can that he had managed to snatch away from Butters. He smirked cheekily, imagining himself and his entire group of long-time friends getting obliterated for the second weekend in a row.

The boisterous group of teenage boys was sitting at their usual lunch table, but this time they were joined by Butters, whom Kenny decided to invite to sit along with them during lunch – mostly because they had all overheard him talking about potentially throwing a small get-together for all of his classmates. And of course, they decided to give the blonde teenager a few useful tips and tricks about organizing a kick-ass party and making sure than no one would rat him out to his strict, overprotective parents.

''Yeah.'', Butters confirmed with a sole nod of his head. ''Can you fellas help me out with it?''

''Sure, no problem.'', Clyde said. ''My sister can hook us up with drinks, so don't consider that to be a big problem. You just have to tell me what kind of booze do you want at your party.''

''Nothing too special, I guess. Beers, and vodka in case someone wants to mix it with juice or Red Bull.''

''I can bring us enough food and snacks for everyone. Maybe even some good quality vodka, like Absolut or Smirnoff.'', Token inserted himself into the party-prepping conversation. ''Since this is the first time you're throwing a party, you should put in at least a little bit of effort.''

''Oh geez, you really don't have to buy anything. I just want everyone to have a good time, and that's it.'', Butters smiled gently, brushing his knuckles together.

''Fair point then.''

The rest of the lunch time seemed to drag on endlessly, until Kenny noticed something very peculiar and realized that a particular member of their group of friends had decided not to eat lunch with them that day. "Hey dudes, did you notice that Cartman _actually_ decided to skip lunch today? Or at least go somewhere else to eat?''

"Dude, what the actual fuck? Fatass _never_ misses lunch. It's his favorite part of school day and probably the only reason why he even goes to school.", Kyle commented, taking a quick glance around the school's cafeteria and noticing that his long time frenemy was nowhere to be seen.

"Apparently, Cartman managed to get himself a girlfriend. Or something adjacent to that.", Kenny inserted himself into the whole conversation again, only confirming everyone's suspicions about why the fattest teenager of them all had been missing out on lunch time for the possibly first time in a while.

"You're shitting me, right?", Token spoke from the opposite end of the table.

"I'm not. He and that Italian chick Lucy actually hooked up at Stan's birthday party last weekend.", Clyde explained, causing everyone at their lunch table to erupt into laughter.

"Wow, imagine Cartman ditching lunch for a girl. That feels extremely weird knowing the fact that he would sell his mom for a bag of Cheesy Poofs.", Kyle snorted, adjusting his trusty green hat and trying to eat his lunch again. "Hopefully that poor girl doesn't end up like Heidi. You all know what she turned into when she started dating him – Cartwoman.''

"No, I actually don't think Lucy will. Believe it or not, he _actually_ likes her. And he admitted that right before he managed to chug down two fucking six-packs of beer and went home hand-in-hand with his new girlfriend.'', the brunette teenage boy confirmed, taking another bite out of his hamburger.

Even though he had been sitting at his usual lunch table with the group of his long-time friends, Stan instead decided to focus on eating his lunch and simply not to indulge himself into the whole party-prepping conversation. Mostly because the dark haired teenage boy hadn't necessarily been in the mood to listen to any one of his friends' party ideas and advices, and frankly, he just didn't want to go to any more parties – at least for some time.

Ever since his sixteenth birthday party, Stan had been feeling particularly dejected. While he knew that the main reason for feeling that way was him kissing his ex-girlfriend and her subsequently storming out of his house after she pulled away from their tender, heart–racing exchange, the raven haired teenager still felt like he wanted to kick himself for even attempting to do that.

However, he was completely aware of the fact that it was _his_ decision to go along with that train of thoughts. And while him and Wendy hadn't been on speaking terms for nearly a week, Stan was still determined towards finally talking to his ex-girlfriend and wiping the slate clean between them.

Looking over his shoulder, Stan saw Wendy sitting at her lunch table with all of her friends, and felt his heart tumble down into the pits of his stomach. He looked at her for a few longing moments, trying to soak up as much of her beauty as he possibly could.

And after all those years of knowing her, he just couldn't get the image of Wendy out of his head.

The way her long, raven hair cascaded down her back. Her twinkling brown eyes framed with long, wispy lashes. Her adorable smile and even more adorable giggles she emitted. Her personality which had barely changed over the years – a perfect mixture of brains, political activism and feminism, sassiness whenever needed, kindless and willingness to help out everyone.

But much to his dismay, the dark haired teenage boy was suddenly snapped out of his longing daydream by Kyle, who was sitting right next to him.

''Dude, what's up with you and Wendy?'', the Jewish teenager asked, taking one more bite out of his lunch.

''Ugh, nothing. Why do you ask?'', cocking a cynical eyebrow at his best friend, Stan snorted to himself and tried to come up with a way of how to get out of the conversation about his ex-girlfriend.

''Look Stan, I might not be an expert when it comes to relationships, but I sure as hell _do_ know that you still have a thing for Wendy.'', Kenny suddenly cut in, smirking cheekily at one of his best friends and taking a sip out of his orange juice box. ''I know this may sound extremely gay, but you know that you can tell me everything, right? Even including the things about girls.''

Pushing his lunch tray away from him, Stan huffed out nervously and ran one hand down the side of his face. ''Look, it's nothing too complicated, okay?''

''However, ever since we kissed at my birthday party, I've been thinking about Wendy more and more.'', the raven haired teenager admitted, sighing out softly. ''I don't know, I guess I'm just not sure if she still feels the same way about me.''

''Well, you will never know if you don't talk to her. I mean, that's kinda' the only way you can find out if both of you still have a thing for each other, am I right?'', Kyle said, heaving his shoulders up and down.

''You think?'', Stan said meekly. ''She's been ignoring my messages on Instagram and Facebook too.''

''Well, text messages mean dog shit in this situation. I've seen the way Wendy looks at you, and although I'm not exactly the master when it comes to reading the girls' emotions and facial expressions, I can tell that she's probably in the same head space as you – she's not sure if you feel the same way about her and maybe wants to sort things out with you in order to repair your friendship, or whatever the heck is going on between you two.'', Kenny explained.

''You mean, it's the same way you look at Red and vice versa?'', swapping a sudden mischievous grin with his dark haired best friend, Kyle decided to tease his another best friend.

''Keep your nose out of my relationships, okay?'', the blonde teenager teased back, shaking his head playfully at both of his best friends. ''Just because Red and I went to Homecoming together, it doesn't mean we actually are together.''

''I guess I'm just gonna' give it a shot, regardless if Wendy still wants to talk to me or not.'', Stan suddenly spoke up, reaching down for his backpack and slinging it over his shoulder. He grabbed his lunch tray and pushed himself up from the bench, making a beeline for the nearest trash can.

The dark haired teenager was absolutely determined towards fixing the friendship with his ex-girlfriend. And the encouraging words coming from his two closest friends only made Stan's self-confidence rise.

But more importantly, he had _never_ been clearer about his feelings for Wendy than in his entire life.

* * *

Strolling down the hallway towards his tenth grade English classroom, Stan looked around the hallway in hopes of finally finding Wendy and talking with her about everything that had happened between them on his sixteenth birthday party.

And although his self-confidence was still moderately high, there was an anxious feeling bubbling in the pits of his stomach. However, once he spotted Wendy standing by her locker, the raven haired teenager felt his heart skipping a gentle beat and nearly all of his nervous thoughts quelling down.

Adjusting the straps of his backpack, Stan made a direct beeline towards his ex-girlfriend and cleared his throat before finally communicating with her for the first time since his birthday.

''Hey Wendy.''

Completely unaware that her ex-boyfriend was now approaching her, the teenage girl flipped through some of her books and tried to make the most out of the remainder of the lunch break she was still having, right before it was the time to head towards her tenth grade English classroom.

Snapping her head up, the mere sound of Stan's voice was more than enough to make Wendy's heart thump against her rib cage. She gave her ex-boyfriend a polite smile, desperately trying to shake off the nervous feeling that had started to coat every inch of her body. ''Oh, hey…''

''What's up?'', Stan asked, smiling right back at his raven haired counterpart.

''Well, nothing too unusual. I'm just going through some notes for my AP Chem class.'', she explained quickly, trying not to get too distracted by Stan's incredibly charming, goofy smile. ''What about you?''

"Nothing much.'', he replied. ''I was actually wondering if you have any plans for this weekend?"

"Hm, apart from studying and reading a good book, I really don't have much planned. Why?", she replied back in a slightly exasperated tone, not even bothering to glance up from her AP Chemistry notebook.

"Well…'', the teenage boy began nervously, awkwardly scratching the back of his neck. ''Since Butters' parents are out of town this weekend, he's going to throw a party. And I wanted to ask you if you would maybe like to come with me."

Glancing up at him through her long, dark lashes, Wendy let out a gentle scoff and and finally placed her notebook inside her locker and slammed it shut. She folded her arms across her chest, cocking a cynical eyebrow at the dark haired quarterback. "I love how you have the decency to ask me if I would like to go to party with you. I don't really recall you apologizing for kissing me.''

"Wendy…'', Stan responded in an almost pleading tone. ''Look, I want to apologize. Sincerely, if you give me a cha-"

''Apology accepted.'', she cut him off suddenly, letting out a sad sigh. ''It's fine, really. You got drunk and kissed me. It happens sometimes.''

"I'm really trying to mend our friendship, okay? I'm being serious.", Stan replied, gently placing both hands on Wendy's shoulders.

"I'm _not_ going with you to the party, just to make things clear.'', letting out another sigh, Wendy simply shook her head. ''But that doesn't mean I'm not going to accept your apology, you know? We can still talk and be friendly with each other, as I also don't want our friendship to go down the toilet because of one drunk fuck-up.''

Breathing out a sigh of relief, Stan removed his hands from Wendy's shoulders and instead put them into the pockets of his comfortable football jacket. He smiled softly at her, feeling incredibly relieved over the fact that she _did_ accept his apology, albeit in a snappish kind of way. ''Good. I feel the same way too.''

"So, when does the party start?", Wendy asked, reaching down for her backpack.

''Well, Butters said that he will tell us eventually, but he said that it won't start neither too late nor too early.'', Stan explained. ''Maybe around eight, eight-thirty?''

''Good.'', the teenage girl smirked as she walked towards their English language classroom, before looking over her shoulder. ''Are you coming to English or are you waiting for the freaking tea party to begin?''

Chuckling at Wendy's sarcastic remark, Stan nodded his head in response as he began to drag himself towards the classroom. But from one corner of his bright blue eye, the teenage boy noticed one particular person that could probably help him out with Wendy the most.

 _Probably_ being the key word in that situation.

"Hey Bebe."

''Oh hey Stan.'', stopping right in her tracks, the curly blonde turned towards her best friend's ex-boyfriend and smiled gently at him. ''Don't think that I didn't see you talking to Wendy. Is everything okay between you guys now?''

''Well, I guess it is. It's not like she was in the mood to listen to my explanations, so she immediately accepted my apology. I really don't know if it was genuine or not, though.''

''You're worrying a bit too much. I can assure you that her reaction was genuine, because I know she's been kinda' hoping you would at least attempt to apologize to her. I just want for both of you to be on good terms, okay?''

''Good, but I'm still kinda' scared that this won't be enough. Maybe I should try to apologize again?''

"It will, so don't forget about that. Believe me, I know everything about that happened between you two on Saturday.''

Groaning out, Stan hung his head back. ''Damn, you _do_?''

''I do, but I can sort of see it from both perspectives – you drank a bit and kissed her, while she got all panicky because you guys actually kissed after such a long time.''

"Although I drank a few cans of beer and then kissed Wendy, I might've wanted to do it anyway. It's not like I forced her or anything, because I asked her if I can do something and when she said yes, I kissed her.", Stan admitted, leaning against one of many school lockers.

Widening her eyes in pure bewilderment, Bebe let out a gentle scoff. ''Really?''

''Well yeah, because I came to conclusion that I still have feelings for her.", Stan confessed gently, heaving his shoulders up and down. ''And also, I kissed her in hopes of potentially rekindling our relationship. But in hindsight, I probably should've given it much more thought.''

"Stan, that's like a major gamechanger.", Bebe said. ''Look, Wendy's sort of a champion when it comes to hiding her feelings. However, I've known her for such a long time that I can tell when something's really bothering her.''

''Yeah, I'm aware of that…'', he droned.

''So, you want to be with her again?'', the blonde teenage girl placed hands on both of her hips, raising a curious eyebrow.

''Isn't it more than obvious? I mean, I don't want to rush anything with her.'', he responded. ''I really wanna' give her the time to gather her thoughts, and when she feels ready to talk about her feelings, I'm more than willing to listen to her. I really fucking miss her.''

''She misses you _too_ , although it probably doesn't seem like it.'', Bebe chuckled, before chewing down on her bottom lip and stewing in deep thought for a few moments.

''Well, here's something I can do – if you're gonna' go to Butters' party this weekend, I can help you by distracting Kyle. I know he's big on all of you guys participating in drinking games, but I can force him to do shots with me instead. That way you can have a chance of talking to Wendy without being interrupted!''

''You would honestly do that?''

''Yeah, because you guys are _both_ my friends. And also, I fucking hate seeing her being down in the dumps over you, especially because I know deep down that she's scared to face how she feels about you and that you might not feel the same way anymore.''

''Well, now you know that I still feel the same way about her. I just have to muster up the courage to talk to her about it.'', Stan replied. ''And thanks for helping me out. I seriously can't thank you enough for this.''

Smiling sweetly at the raven haired teenager, Bebe patted him on the shoulder. ''Don't mention it. Fingers crossed that things eventually work out between you two.''

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello dear readers, I'm back with another chapter!
> 
> I really don't have too much to say about this chapter other than a lot of things are coming to light between Stan and Wendy, as well as falling into place. ;)
> 
> And sadly, we only have two more chapters to go before I wrap the story up! I can't express just how much I've enjoyed writing this story and how much I appreciate every single one of your guys' reviews, favorites and follows.
> 
> Until the next time guys,
> 
> \- xoxo, whisperinthemoonlight. ❤


	9. [hearts on a sleeve]

Friday night couldn't have rolled around faster, as well as the party Butters had been planning for the past couple of days.

Although the blonde teenage boy was sort of expecting his friends to eventually change their minds and screw him over, he was pleasantly surprised when they had told him about already equipping everyone with the needed party-related goodies. But even more importantly, they made sure that _none_ of them would even attempt to imply anything about the party to their parents, or even worse, to Butters' parents.

And as far as everyone's parents had been convinced, it was just going to be a quiet get-together for Butters and all of his long-time friends.

_Right?_

Pretty much the only thing that was left for Butters to handle was for his parents to leave the early Friday morning in order to catch their flight to Honolulu, allowing their only child to be home alone for the first time in his whole sixteen years of being alive and kicking.

Obviously, Steven and Linda's trip preparation also included an entire speech about their son not being able to escape grounding if he would _even_ think about trying to organize a party, to have his friends or perhaps even a girl over at their house – even though they would still occasionally have second thoughts about Butters being one hundred percent straight.

The moment his parents pulled away from the driveway of the Stotch residence and started their route towards the Denver International Airport, the teenage boy typed out a quick text message to the party group chat he had created and informed everyone about finally being home alone, thus giving his friends a green light when it came to delivering booze and food for the party.

After another school week was finally over, Token decided to drop off the drinks at Butters' house, while Kyle and Kenny offered to buy the snacks and whatever the heck people also wanted to eat. And considering the fact that they had some leftover money, Kenny decided to put it towards a good cause and buy some well-deserved food for his entire family.

While the guys were busy with getting the supplies needed for throwing a kick-ass party, the majority of female members of the tight-knit group of teenagers hadn't been so interested in the whole party prepping business, except for Heidi.

The brunette teenage girl was the only one who decided to stay at Butters' place for just a little bit longer and help him set everything up. She had absolutely no problem with offering to help the teenage boy, mostly because they had always been very good friends and would often help each other out with numerous things – homework, worksheets for their science classes, cracking jokes about Cartman…

Since they had been hanging out quite a lot recently and were enjoying each other's company, both Butters and Heidi slowly began to develop feelings for each other. However, neither of them had yet grown the balls to confess how they felt about one another, so they both wanted to use the party as an opportunity to do just that – even if it meant drinking a little bit of booze to help them ease down their nervous thoughts and to finally talk about the feelings they had been attempting to conceal for the past few months.

And them confessing how they felt about each other was exactly what happened, albeit much sooner than both of them had anticipated – thanks to the magic of a single vodka shot and a game of 'never have I ever'.

_''Heidi, where are the beer packs?'', Butters said, walking around the corner into the kitchen in order to find the six packs of beer Token had left there about an hour ago._

_Glancing up from her phone, Heidi cocked her head in the direction of the kitchen and felt her smile forming wide as Butters poked his head out of kitchen. ''Look in the fridge. I'm sure he left them there, just like **any** person with a logical sense of thinking would do.''_

_''I did. They are cool as a cucumber and ready for the party.'', the blonde teenager smiled, taking a seat in the comfortable maroon-colored armchair._

_''I'm glad that there hasn't been any problems with you throwing a party. I was kinda' scared that someone might be a snitch and tell your parents about it.'', Heidi admitted._

_''W-well, truth to be told, they've called me only once since they left for Hawaii. And that was only to tell me that they landed safely and were on their way to the beach resort. I'm sure they are having a blast for their anniversary.''_

_''And you're gonna' have a blast of your own tonight.'', the teenage girl smirked, before a mischievous idea popped into the forefront of her mind._

_''Hey, how about we start the party a little bit earlier, hm?'', Heidi said as she got up from the couch and made a direct beeline for the kitchen, leaving Butters all confused and semi-worried about what the heck she was planning to do._

_But when she came back from the kitchen with a bottle of Smirnoff vodka in her left hand and a couple of shot glasses in her right, the blonde boy quickly pieced everything together and let out the faintest gasp possible. ''Isn't it a bit too early to start drinking something so strong like vodka?''_

_''C'mon Leo, a couple of shots of vodka will help you loosen up for the party. You don't need to feel forced to chug down an entire bottle of it, unless you want that to be your death wish or something.'', Heidi said with a gentle chuckle, plopping herself down on the couch again._

_She scrunched her nose up as the strong alcoholic scent hit her nostrils, pouring the clear liquid into both shot glasses and offering the party host to trickle it down his throat. ''Token bought one more bottle of vodka in case we all manage to finish this one first.''_

_''Heh, good.'', Butters smiled sheepishly, before shaking his head in pure disgust at the sickly scent of a shot he was being offered to take. ''I don't even know why I agreed on Token hooking us up with vodka. I should've told him about getting some other type of alcohol – like tequila or gin.''_

_''Vodka's perfectly fine. You can drink it on its own, or you can mix it with an orange juice and get a bomb-ass drink combination.'', Heidi argued, reaching for her glass and taking a swift shot of vodka down her throat. She coughed almost instantly, as the stinging and burning sensation quickly spread inside her mouth._

_Watching her take the shot of vodka like an absolute champion, Butters simply shrugged his shoulders and proceeded to replicate what his crush had done just moments ago. He made a disgusting facial expression as vodka slid down his throat, causing him to let out a gasp._ _''Oh hamburgers, that's fucking disgusting!''_

_''I know, right? But sometimes, it can be good.'', Heidi giggled, pouring vodka again into hers and Butters' shot glasses. ''Here, take another one.''_

_''I will.'', Butters said meekly, placing the shot glass onto the coffee table beside the couch. ''But under one condition – we play 'never have I ever'.''_

_''Oh…'', the teenage girl widened her blue eyes to the size of saucers, before rapidly nodding her head in agreement and proceeding to take matters into her own hands. ''Well, here's one for you – never have I ever kissed someone while drunk?''_

_''I haven't.'', he admitted shyly, locking his eyes with Heidi's. ''I mean, I'm not drunk right now…''_

_''Perhaps you can do it without being drunk?'', Heidi raised an inviting eyebrow, scooting closer to her crush on the couch._

_Feeling his heart rate going up rapidly, Butters simply grinned at the brunette teenage girl and leaned forward to capture his lips with hers._

_He cupped one side of her face, while his other hand got tangled within her long, brown locks. He pecked at her lips over and over, before Heidi decided to go a little bit further and snaked both arms around Butters' neck, forcing him to lay down on the couch. She teasingly licked his bottom lip with her tongue, feeling the underlying presence of vodka on the blonde teenager's lips._

_Once they finally pulled away, Butters planted a gentle kiss on Heidi's cheek and wrapped his arms around her. She nuzzled her nose into the crook of his shoulder, sighing in pure happiness and relief._

_"I-I like you, Heidi.", he confessed with a gentle hiccup, smiling shyly at the teenage girl and stroking her hair with his fingers. "I kinda' started liking you a few months ago, but I just haven't had the balls to tell you."_

_''Why didn't you tell me sooner?'', she looked up at him through her long, dark lashes, glimpsing adoringly into his hazel eyes and brushing away the messy blonde locks from his face._

_''I was scared of telling you. You know, people already started assuming that I was gay, that I was fawning over Kenny and what not…''_

_''Wait, why the fuck would someone think that?''_

_''Well, your ex-boyfriend started that entire rumor.'', Butters said. ''Just because Kenny is my best friend, it doesn't mean that I have a crush on him.''_

_''So Cartman was the one who started that whole mess? He can honestly go fuck himself and go suck a big one.'', Heidi rolled her eyes in pure disgust, definitely wanting to get the image of her ex-boyfriend out of her head as soon as possible._

_Butters nodded in response. ''Yeah, he was the main culprit for that. But in all seriousness, fuck him.''_

_''Let's not talk about him anymore, okay?'', Heidi cringed, before offering her crush and potentially soon-to-be boyfriend a sweet smile. ''So, you really like me, huh?_ ''

_''I really, really do.'', Butters admitted, nervously twiddling with his thumbs._

_''How about we go on a date?''_

_''Mhm, how about tomorrow?''_

_''Maybe we could. Unless hangover gets the best of us tomorrow.'', she laughed._

_''I don't care.'', the blonde teenager laughed right back at Heidi, wrapping his arms around her once again and pulling her into his warm embrace._

* * *

Several hours later, the party at Butters' place had been in full swing and was pretty damn good – to say the least.

Music was blasting from both speakers placed in the living room, while the seemingly never-ending amounts of booze were trickling down everyone's throats. Enough food and snacks were bought for everyone to munch on, including for the fatass himself, Eric Cartman.

The gang of teenagers had been playing all types of drinking games that would usually get someone obliterated very quickly, including everyone's favorite game of 'never have I ever' – which was often used as a very handy tool to extract the juiciest secrets out of anyone.

When people weren't participating in drinking games or simply didn't feel like drinking anything else other than the tropical flavored punch, they would often get engaged in a makeout session somewhere in the house – and it would usually happen between two people that already had an established relationship, or perhaps between two people that were _yet_ to announce their relationship out to the world, like Kenny McCormick and Red Tucker.

But some teenagers hadn't been interested in anything else other than quietly drinking their booze and watching their friends have a good time, with the most notable ones in that department being both Stan and Wendy.

Just like she had told him during their confrontation a few days ago, the raven haired teenage girl was still more than willing to talk to her ex-boyfriend as if nothing had changed between them and the state of their 'friendship'. But no matter how much she had been trying to find the fine line between being friends with Stan and displaying the tiniest amount of affection towards him, Wendy just wasn't sure if she would be able to conceal her feelings for her ex-boyfriend any longer.

The teenage girl was slouched comfortably in the maroon armchair, with her legs crossed and dangling over the edge of the cozy piece of furniture. She was clacking her fingernails against her nearly empty beer can, occasionally glancing over at her friends playing spin the bottle and locking her brown eyes with the blue ones of her ex-boyfriend.

But still, neither Stan nor Wendy could tear their eyes away from each other.

Admittedly, Stan looked handsome in a bright orange and blue Denver Broncos hoodie she had gotten him as a birthday gift, and a pair of distressed blue jeans. His raven black hair was strategically messy and poked through his red poof ball hat, while his charming smile was there to tie the whole look together.

Wendy, on the flip side, decided to wear something that was slightly out of her comfort zone, but still casual enough. She was wearing a white top with spaghetti straps, a pair of high-waisted black skinny jeans and black ankle boots with sharp, pointy heels.

And she looked absolutely stunning to the teenage boy.

However, Stan's mind had been predominantly cluttered with the thought of _finally_ telling Wendy everything he had been feeling for the past eighteen, heart-wrenching months.

Although Stan usually had no issues with confronting other people, there had always been something about Wendy that made it hard for him to talk to her about more serious things – especially the ones regarding their relationship. But tonight, he decided to shake off all those ridiculous thoughts and confront his ex-girlfriend about his lingering feelings for her.

Placing his empty beer can onto the coffee table, Stan sucked in a deep breath and tried his best to properly organize the nervous thoughts dancing inside of his head. He got up from the second maroon-colored armchair and shuffled across the room towards his ex-girlfriend, giving her a small, sweet smile as he finally approached her.

_It's now or never Stan._

"Wendy, can I talk to you?'', Stan asked, putting his hands inside the pockets of his comfortable hoodie.

''Yeah, I guess.'', looking up at him through her long, wispy lashes, Wendy simply shrugged her shoulders in response and drank the remainder of her beer. ''What is it about?''

''You will see. Can we talk somewhere? Alone maybe?'', he responded with a look of hope pooling in his beautiful blue eyes.

''Alone?", she questioned, feeling her heart pound against her rib cage as Stan gave her nothing else but a sole nod of his head as a response.

Her mouth instantly went dry as the apprehensive, nervous feelings began bubbling inside her guts at the thought of being completely alone with her ex-boyfriend, possibly well out of an earshot from all their friends. Her mind swiftly became overwhelmed with a million and one potential things Stan would say to her, but none of them were even on par with the biggest nerve-racking thought of them all.

_How the hell she would be able to muster enough courage to tell Stan about her surpressed feelings for him?_

That was just one of many anxious thoughts being present inside the raven haired girl's mind, while she was becoming more and more nervous with each step she took behind her ex-boyfriend.

The closer she was getting towards being one-on-one with Stan, the more an idea of being able to avoid their confrontation was becoming distant and crumbling away into thousand little pieces.

* * *

''Stan, where the hell are you taking me?'', Wendy yelped slightly as she watched Stan opening the door of Butters' family dining room and gesturing for her to enter inside.

''Somewhere we can talk to each other without getting interrupted.'', he said gently, closing the door behind him and turning around to finally face his ex-girlfriend.

''And you couldn't have thought about some better place other than the dining room?'', the teenage girl crossed her arms over her chest, shaking her head in disbelief.

''Look, it's fair to say that here we have the best chance of _actually_ talking to each other. The majority of our friends are either being fucking loud, playing seven minutes in heaven with each other or are throwing up in the bathroom. And do you see _anyone_ rampaging in here?''

''No…'', Wendy replied, licking her lips tentatively before proceeding to talk about the potential reason of why she was inside the dining room with Stan. ''So, what do you wanna' talk about?''

Feeling his anxious thoughts skyrocket, Stan swallowed a nervous chunk down his throat and nearly brought himself to the brink of throwing up from all the nervousness that had been consuming his mind ever since arrived to the party.

''Do you have to puke?'', Wendy asked in a worried tone, but soon felt relieved to see Stan giving her an affectionate, kind smile.

''Almost had to, but it's been a while since I last puked.'', he chuckled, before rubbing the back of his neck nervously and trying to come up with the best way of how start the conversation with Wendy. "Look, I really want to talk to you about something."

''Talk about what?'', she cocked a curious, but cautious eyebrow. She was waiting on a knife's edge, desperately wanting to hear Stan's reasons behind the two of them being completely alone.

And when he finally did give her a response, it was probably one of the things she had been expecting to hear the least.

''Wendy, I think it's about time that both of us stop pretending that we are over each other.'', Stan began. ''Because frankly, that's going to bring us nowhere.''

''What are you trying to say? That I'm _not_ over you?'', she responded back, not wanting to believe what she had just heard.

''Well, it seems like it. I don't know why is it that hard for you to admit it?'', he said. ''Up until a few days ago, I was pretty much in the same headspace as you Wendy! Desperately trying to convince myself that I was over you, but when my birthday came around and I drank a bit, I simply came to a conclusion that trying not to face my feelings for you was becoming harder and harder to do.''

''I thought that we shared the same opinion about our kiss – it was a simple mistake.''

''But what if that _wasn't_ a mistake? What if it was something that I've wanted to do ever since the Homecoming dance and when we danced together to that romantic song. Don't you remember _just_ how close you and I were to kissing?''

''Well, I _do_ remember, but…''

''But what Wendy?'', he said in a slightly pleading tone. ''Why am I now being the one who's braver to talk about my feelings and our 'friendship'? You are the one that's definitely not afraid to confront other people and tell them what's bothering you.''

The dark haired girl sighed out sadly, finally dropping her hands down to her hips. ''Because right now I am afraid, Stan. And you are just, I don't know…''

''More open to talk about my feelings?'', he asked.

''Yeah.'', she confirmed timidly. ''It's been something that I've wanted to do for the past year and a half too. However, I've just kept on convincing myself that I was over you and that you weren't going to have much time to talk to me anyway.''

''What do you mean by 'didn't have enough time'? Are you trying to blame me for our breakup?"

''No, of course not.'', she retorted. ''But don't you remember your reasons for not being able to see me in middle school – soccer practices, playing basketball with guys and a whole lot of other things?''

''Well yeah, but I was willing to give in more effort towards spending some time with you.''

''But why didn't you try harder then?''

"Wendy, we've been on and off for years. I just thought that putting in more effort towards something that seemed tiring and emotionally draining wasn't really worth it – at least in that particular moment.'', Stan argued, nervously rubbing the back of his neck.

"Okay, but what about our breakup then? We both decided that breaking up would be the best option, so _don't_ start backflipping on that.", Wendy pondered.

''You're right – it was a mutual decision.'', he agreed. ''But I thought that we would eventually sort things out before we start high school.''

''And we didn't, because I don't think either of us were willing to do that. Or at least felt brave enough.''

''What about Lucas then?'', Stan said meekly, making Wendy cringe the very second she had heard the name of her other ex-boyfriend.

''What does my ex-boyfriend have to do with you and me?''

The raven haired teenage boy instantly remembered how heartbroken he had felt during their Freshman year whenever he saw Wendy with some other guy. And how incredibly furious he had felt over the fact that the jackass named Lucas actually had the decency to cheat on such an amazing girl like Wendy.

Because it took Stan _every_ single ounce of his body _not_ to walk over to the older student and smash him right across his face.

"Do you have _any_ idea how much I wanted to kick Lucas' ass when I heard about him cheating on you? Seeing how happy you were with him made me think about all the opportunities I've missed out on you during our Freshman year. You have no idea how many times I've wished I was that guy."

"So, that's why you had to start dating a girl who used to be one of my closest friends for years? To try and get me out of your head?''

''You were dating someone else at the time, so we were pretty much on the page.''

''Well yeah, I was dating someone that wasn't from our circle of friends. _That_ is completely different.'', Wendy argued in a slightly agitated tone.

"I'm not going to waste my time arguing over the people who we used to date after our breakup.'', Stan folded his arms over his chest and stared directly into Wendy's gorgeous brown eyes. ''I'm serious when I say that I've regretted the way I treated you before. Wendy, I miss you way too much.''

"None of the girls I was interested in after our breakup could ever compete with you.'', the teenage boy admitted, finally allowing emotions to get the best of him. "I've never fallen in love with anyone else like I did with you."

''Stan…'', Wendy sighed.

"Look, I'm the first one to admit that I wasn't necessarily the best boyfriend ever. And that's why it hurt so much seeing you with Lucas, because I thought that you actually found someone who's on par with you in terms of personality and the things you like."

"Fuck his personality and the interests we shared – he cheated on me.'', the teenage girl said, rolling her eyes.

"And that made me want to beat him up even more. He wasn't worthy of you at all.", Stan admitted gently, taking a step closer towards Wendy and tucking a long, loose strand of her hair behind her ear.

"But is it late for us?", she asked apprehensively, feeling the goosebumps form all over her skin underneath her ex-boyfriend's gentle touch.

"Wendy, it's _never_ been too late for us.", he said with a chuckle.

"You know...", Wendy began timidly, dropping her hands down to her sides again and brushing her fingertips against Stan's. She could feel salty tears forming in the corners of her eyes, but when she realized that there was really no point in holding back her tears, she allowed one small, solitary tear to run down her cheek. "For the past year and a half, that tiny part of me has been hoping that you would eventually come back around.''

"I know.'', Stan smiled gently, sliding both hands underneath Wendy's head and wiping away the tears from her cheeks. He pressed his forehead against hers, gazing into her hypnotizing brown eyes. ''I was wondering if you're gonna' finally admit it."

But feeling as if they hadn't been close to each other enough, for the second time in eighteen, heart-wrenching months, Stan captured his lips with Wendy's in a gentle kiss. He clutched both hands onto either sides of her face, allowing himself to re-familiarize with the taste of her lips. Their lips began to move in a slow, but tender rhythm, making their hearts absolutely soar out of their chests.

Wendy sighed out softly against his lips, wrapping both arms around Stan's neck and pulling him closer towards her. She ran her fingertips through his soft black locks that she had still loved oh so much, entwining them at the nape of his neck. Deciding to give in a little bit into more their kiss, Stan stooped down and placed both hands underneath Wendy's thighs for an extra leverage. He lifted her up just slightly, placing her down on the dining table and standing in between her now parted legs. She cupped his cheeks with her hands, smiling tenderly into their kiss.

The kiss tasted even sweeter than the one they had shared a week before, but it also reminded both raven haired teenagers of just how much they had been aching to be in each other's arms and be this close again.

They pecked at each other's lips over and over, with neither Stan nor Wendy being ready to pull away just yet. Both teenagers wanted to prolong the amazing moment for as long as they possibly could, at least up until their lungs started to gasp for air. Once they finally parted away from each other, the teenage boy gazed into her chocolate brown eyes and planted a tender kiss on her forehead, fishing down for her hand in order to lace their fingers together.

''You think we should give us another try?'', he asked, comfortingly rubbing circles on top of her hand with his thumb.

''Yeah, definitely.'', she grinned up at him.

''You know…'', Stan began. ''I'm sixteen now and slightly more mature than before, so I think I will be able to learn from the past mistakes I've done in our relationship and do my best to fix them.''

''Stan, I'm not forcing you to change because of me. I'm not perfect either, and you know that _very_ well.'', Wendy responded. ''But I'm _always_ going to appreciate you putting in the effort towards becoming a better person, although I can indeed say that you have matured since elementary school.''

''Don't forget that I've also done a lot of mistakes in our relationship before.'', she continued further.

''Well, everyone makes mistakes.'', he argued, kissing the very tip of her nose and making her blush like crazy.

''What about us spending enough time together?'', Wendy asked curiously, but let out a scoff once she realized what she had asked. ''Oh crap, I really didn't mean to start annoying you with that already.''

''You worry way too much, babe. We will just have to find that perfect balance, but considering the fact that we were able to do our assignment rather quickly and still have the time for other things, I don't think that's going to be a problem anymore.'', Stan beamed at Wendy, tugging onto her hand and waiting for her to hop down from the table.

''Awesome.'', she beamed right back. "Come on, let's go back to the guys."

Pulling her into another tender kiss, Stan opened the door of the dining room and walked out of it, never wanting to cease the kiss he was sharing with his girlfriend. They grinned happily into their kiss, before pulling away from each other and making their way back to the living room.

Neither of the two teenagers were able to hide the goofy grins that had been plastered across their lips, just like the irresistibly red blush that had formed in their cheeks. And frankly, both Stan and Wendy hadn't been ashamed of the fact that it was all worth it in the end.

Because _finally_ , they were back to where they belonged – together, as a couple.

* * *

Some time later, both Stan and Wendy started to feel particularly sleepy and decided to call it a night when it came to partying at Butters' place.

They were eagerly rushing to slip on their coats and leave the blonde teenager's house, as well as to discuss about where they were to head next. And once they said goodbye to all their friends and thanked Butters for throwing a very nice party, the two raven haired teenagers closed the door behind them and walked hand-in-hand into one of South Park's many residential streets.

''So much for staying the night at Butters' place, right?'', Wendy teased.

''Well, I was initially thinking about crashing over at Butters' place, but since the guest bedroom has already been taken by Kenny and Red, and Token and Nichole fell asleep on the couch, I just didn't want to cause more mess for the poor guy to clean up.'', Stan explained, smiling right back at his girlfriend.

''Hm, you can sleep over at my place?'', she suggested. ''Butters doesn't live that far away from me."

''Really? I mean, I would love to, but…'', Stan smiled sheepishly. ''Aren't your parents going to be pissed off when they find out you brought your boyfriend over?''

''Who says they will know that I had _anyone_ over?'', Wendy smirked cheekily, standing up on her toes to plant a tender peck on her boyfriend's lips. "Besides, my parents are both out of town this weekend. Mom has this business conference in L.A., while dad went on a skiing trip to Aspen with his colleagues."

''Killer.'', Stan smirked right back as he continued to walk alongside his girlfriend.

''But, I'll let you sleep over at my house under one condition – you have to let me wear your Broncos hoodie to bed.''

''Really Wends?'', the teenage boy responded, chuckling to himself in slight disbelief. ''Fine, you win.''

''Hell yeah.'', she sung back teasingly, re-affirming the grip she had on Stan's hand and taking another step towards her family home.

That night, both Stan and Wendy happily fell asleep in each other's embrace after such a long time, _definitely_ not being able to shake off the amazing sensation that the longing dreams of them being together again weren't dreams anymore, but instead a reality that neither of them had been willing to slip away _e_ _ver_ again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, they finally got back together! ;)
> 
> Can you tell just how much I enjoyed writing this chapter? If Stan and Wendy were about to get back together, I made sure that it would be written with an extra dose of fluffiness. It is incredibly fluffy and sappy, but you guys are well aware that this is my writing style.
> 
> And with a great amount of sadness, I have to say that this is the penultimate chapter in this fanfic. Since we only have one more chapter to wrap things up, I want to give this story a proper farewell before moving onto new, fresh stories. :)
> 
> Until the next time,
> 
> \- xoxo, whisperinthemoonlight. ❤


	10. [the remix of you and me]

An early, brisk Saturday morning came only with the tiniest hint of discomfort for the pair of raven haired teenagers.

Even though they had spent the majority of evening making out in a half dreamy, half drunken state and snuggling with each other in a maroon-colored armchair, that still didn't stop both Stan and Wendy from participating in various drinking games with all their friends. Sure, they would be in for a rather unpleasant hangover the day after, but it was all worth it in the end – especially them having a whole lot of fun as a newly reunited couple.

And the very next morning, the thought of them dragging themselves out of bed and doing something even remotely productive had been pushed to the back of their minds. Because frankly, nothing could ever top snuggling and cuddling with the person someone considered their favorite one in the whole wide world.

On that particular thought, Wendy let out another tiny snore and snuggled deeper underneath her warm covers. She sighed out contently at the relaxing heartbeat coming from her boyfriend's chest and simply felt herself melting under the amazing sensation of being in Stan's arms again.

The teenage girl was sleeping in a sort of a weird position – she was mostly laying flat on her stomach, but was also being kind of tucked against her boyfriend's sleeping frame. She also rested her left arm comfortably on his chest and had her one leg tucked in between his own, while Stan was laying on his back and had both arms leisurely wrapped around the raven haired girl that had snuggled up against him.

But even though it was Saturday and that meant sleeping a little bit longer than usual, that didn't necessarily mean that was going to be the day in which Stan and Wendy would get up relatively late and spend the entirety of the day laying in her bed, because both of their minds had been thinking the exact opposite.

The dark haired teenage boy was the first one to get up, albeit thanks to his own bladder betraying him and forcing him to go to relieve himself. And once he returned to bed and nestled comfortably next to his long-time girlfriend, he was sort of expecting to fall asleep again relatively quickly and get a few more hours of sweet slumber.

But much to his dismay, he just couldn't fall asleep again and decided to peruse the YouTube app for some fun, interesting videos instead. In addition to that, him changing the position in which he had fallen asleep earlier also meant disturbing Wendy's slumber and allowing her to join the 'not enough sleep' club as well.

And as soon as she was shifted out of her position just a little bit, the teenage girl felt her eyes slowly fluttering open. Realizing that she had still been snuggled up against her boyfriend, Wendy lifted her head up from his chest and gave Stan a half sleepy smile. She muttered something under her breath, before adoringly burying her face in the crook of his neck.

Noticing that his girlfriend had also woken up, Stan locked his phone and placed it on Wendy's nightstand. He gently brushed away the stray parts of her hair and ran a hand up and down the oversized bright orange Broncos hoodie she had still been wearing. ''Morning.''

''Morning baby.'', Wendy replied with sleep lingering in her voice. She pressed herself against Stan's body closer, wrapping an arm around his torso and inhaling the intoxicating scent of his shirt that had still carried the remnants of last night's partying.

Stan rested his chin on top of Wendy's forehead, smiling as he tenderly kissed her hairline and pulled her closer into his embrace. She looked up at him through her long, dark lashes and leaned slightly forward to capture their lips together in a gentle kiss, propping herself on her elbow for support.

They both smiled into their first morning kiss and entwined their fingers together, definitely not wanting to let go of each other just yet. And once they parted away, Wendy nuzzled her face back into Stan's chest and sighed in pure happiness.

And as the thoughts of her being back in Stan's embrace had still drummed inside of her mind, Wendy closed her eyes again and sighed contently. However, her being comfortably cuddled against Stan didn't necessarily mean that she wasn't eventually going to force herself out of bed and coerce her boyfriend into doing the exact same thing.

But the dark haired teenage boy had a different outlook on the way they were going to spend their first day of being together again, even if he had been the one to get up first and subsequently wake his girlfriend up as well.

''Babe, we should probably get up…'', Wendy said as she gazed into her boyfriend's bright blue eyes, resting one hand on her chin and brushing the other one against his cheek.

''Why?'', Stan asked, interlocking his fingers with Wendy's. ''The only thing I wanna' do today is to lay in bed with you all day long, cuddle, kiss and pig out on some junk food.''

''Stan, baby, come on…'', the teenage girl droned in a half sleepy voice, nuzzling her head in the crook of his neck again. ''You need to call your parents and let them know where you are.''

''I don't…'', he muttered sleepily, happily shutting his eyes and pulling Wendy even closer to him. ''I already told my mom that I'm gonna' crash at Kyle's place and hang out with him and the guys for a little while, and then come home for dinner.''

''So, I guess you can stay here up until dinner?'', Wendy asked, feeling her smile grow wider as Stan gave her an affirmative nod of his head and a simple 'uh-huh' as a response. ''But still, we should _really_ get up.'', she reasoned, finally summoning the energy to throw the covers off her body and push herself up into a sitting position. She stretched herself out as much as she possibly could, gently biting down on her bottom lip as she noticed that Stan had fallen asleep again.

Wendy rolled her eyes playfully at the adorable sight of her boyfriend snoozing so peacefully, before she decided to snuggle up against him and doze off for a few more hours – because why the heck not?

And a couple of hours later, both Stan and Wendy did eventually drag themselves out of bed and got re-dressed into their regular clothes, with the teenage boy letting his girlfriend wear his hoodie for the rest of the day. They cuddled just a little bit longer, before both of them decided to do something else other than just laying in bed the entire day.

''Mhm, so what do you wanna' do today?'', Stan said flirtatiously, snaking both arms around Wendy's waist and planting a gentle kiss on her lips.

Pecking his lips once more, Wendy giggled sweetly. ''Honestly, I really don't know. All that matters to me is that we are finally spending some time alone.''

''Well, for starters, let me do something.'', the teenage boy smirked as he hooked one arm underneath his girlfriend's knees and picked her up bridal style. She let out an involuntary yelp, but soon giggled adoringly as Stan shut her bedroom door behind him and began walking towards the staircase.

"Stan, I swear to God if you trip and fall down the stairs with me...", she warned him, instictively latching both arms around his neck for support, but felt her heart flutter in her chest as Stan gave her a gentle peck on the cheek and promised not to try tumbling down the stairs along with her.

"You're not that heavy, babe.", he argued as he carefully began walking down the stairs. ''I had to carry Cartman once, okay? And he's enough of a problem to carry on his own.''

''Aww, poor you.'', she cooed sarcastically, making the raven haired teenage boy playfully roll his eyes.

''Wanna' eat something?'', Stan asked as they descended down the stairs and took a final step into the living room of Wendy's family home. He allowed Wendy to hop down from his arms and straighten her posture, before she grabbed onto both of his arms and pulled him into another surprisingly sweet exchange, definitely the one out of many they were going to share that day.

Parting her lips away from his, Wendy gave her boyfriend a sole node of her head as a response. ''Yeah, of course. Do you have anything in mind?''

"Eh, I suck at cooking, so, do _you_ have any idea then?'', Stan asked.

"Well, I can make us some toast or maybe an omelette if I manage to find enough eggs in the fridge.'', she explained, taking a gentle hold of his hand and leading them around the corner into the kitchen. ''Or maybe you can come up with something too?''

''Wends, I can't cook for shit. Just ask the guys how many times I've fucked up a simple dish recipe and created a havoc in the kitchen, especially when it came to cooking for us after we had to deal with a severe hangover.'', the dark haired teenage boy explained as he leaned himself against the countertop, letting go of Wendy and watching her shuffle over to the kitchen cabinet to grab some whole wheat bread and prepare the toast for both of them.

''Making a toast isn't rocket science. Come on, I will show you.'', she said. ''Look, I'm not Gordon Ramsay either, but you can't fuck up a toast that easily, trust me.''

''Alrighty then.'', Stan smiled gently, walking over to Wendy and waiting for her to instruct him about how he was supposed to prepare the toast without screwing it up completely. He wrapped both arms around her waist and rested his chin on her shoulder, patiently listening to her instructions.

''Take a slice of bread, or two, and just pop it in the toaster, and then you have to put it on the right setting because otherwise you are going to end up with a burned piece of toast. I usually like my toast a bit more on the crispier side, so I'm gonna' put it on the setting number three. Got it?'', she explained.

''Got it – take a slice of bread and put it in the toaster, and also make sure that it's put on the proper setting. Am I right?'', he confirmed as he leaned forward and gave Wendy a gentle peck on the cheek, causing her to blush intensely and spin around on the spot to face her boyfriend.

''Yeah. You see, it's not _really_ that difficult.'', she gestured over to the toaster as it beeped loudly and signalled that the two pieces of toast had been prepared to a near crispy perfection.

''Of course it's not, because _you_ are the one that taught me that making toast can actually be done without turning it into something that barely counts as edible.'', Stan joked, kissing the very tip of Wendy's nose and making her giggle sweetly.

''Dumbie.'', she laughed as she leaned forward and delicately met her lips with Stan's, _definitely_ not wanting to stop their tender exchange any time soon.

* * *

Several hours later and after a few rounds of playing Mario Kart together, the two raven haired teenagers found themselves curled up against one another on the couch binge-watching _The Umbrella Academy_ on Netflix – one of Wendy's favorite shows, and perhaps one of Stan's future favorite shows as well.

Stan had his back comfortably slouched against the couch, while Wendy sat right next to him and had her legs crossed in his lap. She rested her head on his shoulder and felt her heart pitter-patter with pure happiness as her boyfriend wrapped one arm around her, pulling her even closer to him.

"I've _really_ missed this.", Stan sighed happily, resting his chin on his girlfriend's shoulder and hugging her snugly around her slender waist.

"What exactly?", Wendy asked curiously, shifting herself against Stan so that she could glance up into his clear blue eyes.

"I've missed this. You know, being with you again and spending some quality time together.", he explained as he slid his hands from her waist down to her hips, clawing gently at them. ''This is something I've wanted for the past year and a half, but I was just scared that you might've moved on from me and us, heh.''

''Clearly, I didn't.'', she laughed gently as she rotated her head towards Stan and kissed him sweetly on the lips. ''But yeah, I've missed this _too_.''

''I'm interested in what are your parents going to say when you tell them that we started dating again.'', Wendy said further, cocking a sarcastic eyebrow at the raven haired teenager sitting next to her. ''Because I'm sure that's going to come as a big surprise to both of them.''

''Well, what am I supposed to tell them? They will eventually become aware of it and will start nagging me with a gazillion questions about you, how come we got back together and much more.'', Stan laughed. ''Wendy, you know that they've _always_ liked you and they still do. If anything, I know that both of them will be very happy about us getting back together.''

''I think my parents are gonna' be _even_ more elated when they find out about us.'', Wendy said as she scooted just a little bit closer to Stan and wrapped an arm around his torso. ''You know, every once in a while they would ask me about you and how you've been doing, but I just couldn't give them a proper answer so I just said that you are doing better than ever and are fairly busy with football.''

''Oh did they?'', he responded back flirtatiously, allowing a gentle chuckle to escape his throat. ''Well, here I am – sixteen years old, finally playing on the starting team as a quarterback and barely more mature than I used to be in elementary school.''

''Well, I can't really disagree with you on any of those things, can I?'', Wendy replied, gently cupping Stan's cheek with her hand. ''Actually, I don't think you're really that immature, because I've seen you putting in so much effort towards football and school, and you are excelling at both of those things. And honestly, I think that made me fall in love with you _even_ more.''

''Mhm…'', Stan beamed at the teenage girl snuggled up against him. ''You can't be more in love with me than I'm in love with you, okay?''

Snorting teasingly, Wendy gave him a playful slap on his forearm and beamed right back at him. ''Is this supposed to be some kind of a competition or what?''

''Maybe?'', the teenage boy smirked cheekily, before grabbing onto Wendy's waist and placing her directly onto his lap. She let out a delightful squeak as Stan began to pepper her face with soft little kisses and caused her cheeks to blush bright red.

"God, I love you _so_ fucking much.", he murmured into Wendy's hair, before gently cupping both of her cheeks with his hands and staring deeply into her chocolate brown eyes.

''I love you too, Stan.'', Wendy responded as they grinned adoringly at each other, with Stan leaning forward and kissing her with as much love as he could possibly muster.

It had _still_ felt incredibly surreal to the teenage girl that she and Stan actually got back together after such a long time.

Eighteen months.

Eighteen months of pining after each other, going through relationships that didn't mean to be long-lasting anyway, and both of them eventually coming to terms that they hadn't been over each other as much as they initially convinced themselves they were.

But frankly, none of those things had mattered to Stan and Wendy anymore.

They were _finally_ back together, and both of them sure as hell weren't going to let their relationship crumble away or get weakened by petty little things – like it had been in the past, unfortunately.

Both raven haired teenagers simply felt their whole world melting under the amazing sensation of every tender kiss they had exchanged. And that was something that both of them were intending to cherish for a very, _very_ long time, or maybe even better – for the rest of their lives.

_Because sometimes two people have to fall apart to realize how much they need to fall back together._

* * *

_~ Five years later. ~_

With all of them more or less successfully finishing their high school education, the teenagers from a small redneck mountain town eventually went their own separate ways. The majority of them had decided to embark on a journey called college, while some of them were perfectly content with staying in South Park and making their first steps into the adult world as the newly-crowned high school graduates.

_Kyle & Bebe~ _

For the longest time possible, Kyle just wasn't sure what would end up being his career path – becoming a lawyer like his father, or maybe picking out a completely different career choice. He had often gone back and forth between studying law or accounting, but in the end, Kyle decided to study Dentistry at the UCLA and become successful in a field that was completely different to the career paths many of his relatives had chosen to go down – lawyers or accountants.

Contrary to her auburn haired boyfriend, Bebe had a much easier time picking out the university of her choice and what she wanted to do with her life. Since she didn't want to be too far away from Kyle, she happily accepted his offer to join him in Los Angeles and started studying Nursing at the very same university as her boyfriend.

_Heidi & Butters~ _

After confessing their feelings for each other all the way back in Sophomore year of high school, Butters and Heidi had been inseparable ever since. And when it came to talking about their relationship post-high school, both of them realized that they just wouldn't be able to spend their college days away from one another, so the two lovebirds decided to enroll together at the University of California in Berkeley. Butters was studying Computer Science, while his brunette soulmate decided to build a career in the field of science – opting to study chemistry and become South Park's very own version of Marie Curie.

_Tweek & Craig~ _

Much to the surprise of both Heidi and Butters, Craig also opted to study at the very same university as them and pursue a degree in Earth and Planetary Sciences – being fascinated with the universe, planets and stars ever since he was a little boy.

And obviously, Craig didn't want to leave his beloved Honey behind in South Park, so Tweek followed his dark haired boyfriend to the Bay Area and ended up becoming flatmates with him, Butters and Heidi.

Although at first he had no aspirations for attending college, Tweek did eventually start attending a very prestigious San Francisco Cooking School, with dreams of becoming a pastry chef and eventually opening his very own pastry shop back at South Park. He was also working part-time at his friends' college campus and would try to spend every single moment with his boyfriend, _definitely_ not wanting to be away from him whatsoever.

_Red & Kenny~ _

Despite being quite content with their whole 'will they hook up or won't they hook up' thing, Kenny and Red had eventually decided to stop denying the obvious feelings they had for each other and become more serious about their relationship. Since the two of them were the only ones out of their entire group of friends that hadn't had any intentions of attending college, they both started working almost immediately after graduating high school – Kenny working full-time in the Amazon fullfilment center and occasionally bartending on the weekends, while his auburn haired girlfriend worked as a waitress in her father's bar. They were both earning more than enough to support themselves and get their own place, with Kenny's little sister Karen eventually moving in them at the start of her Freshman year in high school and getting away from the seeminly never-ending dire living situation she had been subjected to ever since she was born.

_Cartman & Lucy~ _

Even though everyone was absolutely gobsmacked by the fact that Cartman had still managed to keep his relationship with Lucy afloat, their high school romance hadn't been exactly smooth sailing – especially when she broke things off with him at the beginning of their Junior year and subsequently ended up getting back together several months later, only to break up and reconcile once again during their Senior year.

With hopes of taking over her family's business one day and building a career in the field of tourism, Lucy was studying Hospitality at the Metropolitan State University in Denver. And although she had struggled at first and even contemplated dropping out during her Freshman year of college, her boyfriend had persuaded her to continue with her studies and get her degree.

Cartman had managed to get enrolled into the University of Colorado in Denver, working hard towards double majoring in both Entrepreneurship and Finance. The still slightly pudgy young man had actually managed to clean up his act and become more of a decent human being, going as far to actually make amends with Kyle and become good friends with him – which was something he never thought it would actually happen.

_Stan & Wendy~ _

Ever since their reconciliation at Butters' party in their Sophomore year, the raven haired couple had been still going extremely strong, with only a few minor bumps along the way – most of them being related to incredibly silly outbursts of jealousy from both Stan and Wendy, to minor tiffs and pointless arguments.

To the surprise of almost no one, Stan had successfully managed to obtain a football scholarship and eventually enrolled at the University of Southern California to study Architecture. He was playing college football for USC's Trojans team and was quickly promoted to a regular on the starting team, enjoying every single moment of his college life and working towards getting a degree in a field he was quite fond of. And although he wished he could get to see his high school sweetheart more often, Stan would face-time and message Wendy on a daily basis – sometimes even driving all the way up to the Bay Area in order to spend time with his ravenette counterpart.

Even though she wasn't able to get accepted into any Ivy League college she had applied to, that just wasn't enough to crush Wendy's spirits and steer her away from applying into her third college of choice – Stanford University. She enrolled into the university's very prestigious law school and was working her butt off to get excellent grades, still managing to keep up the momentum she was able to maintain throughout her entire elementary and high school education.

Maintaining a long-distance relationship with Stan had been sort of tough at first, but through messaging and face-timing with him on a daily basis, the raven haired beauty eventually got used to her boyfriend not being beside her every single day. They would make the most out of their college breaks, usually spending the entire days together and being reluctant to part away from each other when the time to leave for their respective universities came around.

But to both Stan and Wendy, it _really_ didn't matter for how long they would have to be apart from each other – whether it was three months in between their college holidays, or those heart-wrenching, long eighteen months they had been apart in the eighth grade and Freshman year of high school.

Because they both knew that the insane love they had been feeling for each other ever since third grade was the _true_ key to each other's heart.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh wow, I actually can't believe this story is officially over!
> 
> I managed to wrap it up almost four months after posting the very first chapter, and I can't be more proud of myself for not giving up on this fanfic and losing inspiration along the way.
> 
> I've poured so much love and dedication into this story over the past three and a half months, and I honestly don't regret it one bit. I also feel like this story has improved my writing style tremendously and helped me enrich my knowledge of English language even more.
> 
> Thank you so much to each and every one of you that has taken the time to read the story, leave a favorite and review it. I sincerely hope you enjoyed reading it and please feel free to let me know your thoughts about this story! ;)
> 
> Until the next time,
> 
> \- xoxo, whisperinthemoonlight. ❤


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